Lance Walker

Lance Walker is an oil and gas title attorney who examines title and writes title opinions across Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and North Dakota. He watches closely for the differences between states that cause problems in multi-state work. Years of issue spotting let him separate a five-alarm title risk from one that sits way down the list, so operators know exactly where to focus curative effort. Colleagues describe his work as solving a puzzle without the picture on the box, and that’s the part he enjoys most.

Multi-State Title Examination Grounded in Jurisdiction-Specific Law

Every state handles oil and gas title its own way, and Lance’s practice is built on knowing those differences. He started his career in Midland drafting title opinions across the Permian Basin of West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, and he has since built deep experience in Oklahoma and North Dakota. In Texas, that means close attention to non-participating royalty interests and how courts read fixed and floating fractional reservations, a constant source of litigation. In Oklahoma, it means separating marketable interests from defective ones so only the affected fraction goes into suspense. A wave of class action suits over interest on suspended royalties has made that distinction even more important. He also helps cross-train Feighny Hartle’s lawyers so they stay current on how each state’s title law differs.

Native American Land Titles and Emerging Regulatory Changes in Oklahoma and North Dakota

Some of the highest-stakes title work in Oklahoma involves Native American land titles. Much of Eastern Oklahoma traces back to the Five Civilized Tribes and falls under a separate body of law that went through major reform a few years ago. Clients are still adjusting, and those titles carry hidden traps: handle one incorrectly and an operator can lose the entire title. Lance also tracks changes that sit alongside the title opinion. These include Oklahoma’s 2026 reform of interest on late-paid royalty proceeds and a recent North Dakota Supreme Court decision affecting how operators lay down new drilling spacing units and pooling orders. They don’t always change title, but they do change drilling operations, so he makes sure clients know about them.

Scalable Title Opinion Capacity for Time-Sensitive Drilling Schedules

Lance spent 16 years running a husband-and-wife title practice with Tina Walker, so he knows how quickly a small shop runs out of capacity. Title opinions keep getting more complex, and a single opinion can take months. An operator with a dozen opinions due before a spud date can’t wait for one examiner to finish them one at a time. At FH, he’s part of a team that spreads large projects across multiple attorneys under one roof and adjusts when a project changes. The team’s mix of backgrounds and experience levels helps on the hard problems. His approach to communication stays the same at any volume: if a problem is going to take time, the client hears about it early. No surprises.

Published Commentary on Comparative Title Law and Royalty Issues

Lance writes for the people doing the work. His articles have appeared in the National Association of Division Order Analysts magazine and The Green Bag. They include a two-part series co-authored with Tina on why the Texas form title opinion doesn’t work in Oklahoma. Several more pieces are in the pipeline, covering interest on suspended royalties, Oklahoma division orders, and the Osage Mineral Estate. He also publishes an energy newsletter on LinkedIn with more than 1,700 subscribers, and nearly 10,500 people follow him there.