Scott ButcherShareholder/Director
Scott Butcher is a shareholder in the Energy, Environment & Natural Resources and Litigation & Trial practice groups at Crowe & Dunlevy. His practice focuses on complex business disputes, environmental liability litigation and regulatory enforcement and compliance for a diverse client base, including oil and gas and renewable energy clients, water providers, agricultural groups, mining groups, property developers and individual litigants. Scott also advises clients regarding water use regulation and litigation, in addition to complex administrative appeals. Licensed in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, Scott represents clients in federal and state court at the district and appellate levels as well as before the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, and the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.
Prior to joining the firm, Scott worked with law firms in New York as well as Oklahoma. He obtained clinical experience working with the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and spent time working for the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma in the Criminal Division Violent Crimes section.
Representative experience includes*:
- Advising clients on emerging regulatory compliance issues and dispute resolution stemming from contamination per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as “forever chemicals.” Scott has advised clients through pragmatic investigation and response to potential soil, groundwater, drinking water, and surface water contamination and on how to prepare to maintain regulatory compliance and minimize legal liability in the future.
- Negotiating and satisfying environmental remediation requirements before the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
- Representing applicants and protestants in permitting matters before the Oklahoma Water Resources Board
- Advising industrial facilities, including oil refineries, regarding environmental permitting and compliance
- Litigating a variety of land use disputes relating to easements, oil and gas leases, concurrent rights, and alleged trespass nuisance claims stemming from, among other things, environmental contamination to surface runoff
- Representing oil and gas lessees in litigation over proper calculation of landowner royalties and overriding royalties
- Representing non-operating working interest owners in accounting disputes under oil and gas Joint Operating Agreements and Farm Out Agreements
- Representing oil and gas operators in indemnity disputes under drilling contracts
- Defending lease brokers against tort and contract claims due to competing claims to mineral interest
- Assisting in the prosecution and defense of claims in complex arbitration proceedings under midstream contracts
- Representing a variety of agricultural and industrial clients in administrative proceedings and appeals
- Advising clients with wind energy production and transmission projects, in addition to identifying opportunities to work with municipalities and regulatory agencies
*Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its merits.
New York University School of Law
New York, NY
J.D., 2009
University of Oklahoma
Norman, OK
B.A., 2006
- Oklahoma, 2009
- United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, 2009
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, 2009
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, 2009
- Kansas, 2015
- Tenth Circuit, 2015
- Texas, 2019
- American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources
- American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility
- American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division
- Listed in Benchmark Litigation as an Oklahoma Future Star (2019 - Present)*
*Crowe & Dunlevy has no input in the rating methodologies used by Benchmark Litigation.
- Speaker, “Operational Safeguards, Risk Management and Mitigation Strategies,” Crowe & Dunlevy's Avoiding a Shakedown: Induced Seismicity and the Legal, Regulatory and Operational Impacts of Earthquakes in Oklahoma, July 16, 2015, Oklahoma City, OK
