Howard L. Boigon is the founder and sole member of Boigon Law Ltd, a Denver boutique law firm focused on the practice of natural resources law, with a particular focus on the upstream oil and gas industry, both in the United States and internationally. Howard founded Boigon Law in 2014 after over 40 years experience in large law firms and as general counsel of publicly traded exploration and production companies. His objective in starting his own law firm was to bring his big firm capability to the affordability and personal attention that a small firm can offer. Boigon Law welcomes complex legal or policy challenges as well as the opportunity to counsel entrepreneurs and enterprises large and small on their ongoing business activities in the natural resources industry. Clients have included the full range of stakeholders engaged in or affected by the industry. Mr. Boigon is available to collaborate with other counsel and to assist in dispute advocacy and resolution on natural resource industry matters.
international
Background
Extensive industry experience
big firm experience-personal service
howard L. boigon
Before forming Boigon Law, Mr. Boigon served as a partner in the natural resources section of a large Denver law firm and later as a partner in the Denver office of a global law firm, where he also specialized in energy regulatory and natural resource law. Between those two law firm experiences, he spent 12 years as general counsel and senior executive in two Denver-based public companies that explored for and produced oil and gas both onshore and offshore in the United States. This combination of large law firm and industry experience has given him a unique ability to combine legal rigor with practical problem solving in counseling his clients. He has experience as an industry regulator, having served as vice chair of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (now the Energy and Carbon Management Commission) from 2017 until 2020. He has also been an industry advocate in legislative and regulatory matters and served as the chair of the oil and gas industry’s statewide trade association, giving him insight into the challenges facing industry and its stakeholders alike. Mr. Boigon has been an active participant in the governmental process, as advocate, lobbyist, and advisor to political leaders, at state and national levels, and has helped to shape legislative and regulatory policy in key areas.
Mr. Boigon’s experience includes advising exploration and production companies on acquisition and disposition of properties, drilling and development agreements, joint operating agreements, master service agreements, drilling contracts, gathering and processing agreements, and production purchase agreements, covering both onshore and offshore properties. On the finance side, he has experience with reserve-based lending agreements and related mortgage security documentation, private equity, and structured finance. He has advised energy companies, public entities, surface developers, and landowners on land use matters relating to oil and gas development, and regulatory compliance and enforcement. He is an expert on industry joint operational issues and has testified as an expert witness in industry disputes involving joint operating agreements.
Mr. Boigon has played a key role in the development and implementation of policy affecting the industry. He was a principal author of the extensive 1989 revision to the standard oil and gas industry onshore operating agreement that became a model for the development of standardized operating agreements in other industry contexts. He served on the panel that drafted the 2023 form Participation Agreement issued by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen. He has lectured and written widely on joint operations in the extractive industries, land use issues, regulatory policy, and other aspects of oil and gas law and practice. He helped to lead the oil and gas industry’s participation in the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission’s extensive overhaul of industry regulation in 2008. In 2007, he was principal drafter and the oil and gas industry’s chief legislative advocate of Colorado’s innovative legislation, Senate Bill 237, on reconciling competing land development and oil and gas operations in the greater Wattenberg area of northeast Colorado. He has testified in the Colorado general assembly on many occasions on issues affecting oil and gas law and policy.
Mr. Boigon has experience as an advocate in industry disputes and enforcement matters in judicial and administrative forums and arbitrations.
Internationally, Mr. Boigon has extensive experience in offshore natural gas development in Israel, including familiarity with the regulations and administrative directives governing oil and gas development and the negotiation and drafting of transactional documents for the acquisition and development of oil and gas rights. He has worked on upstream oil and gas development projects in a variety of countries in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. He has negotiated and drafted service contracts, production sharing agreements, and other documentation relating to the acquisition of petroleum rights from host governments, farmout agreements, joint venture agreements, and joint operating agreements relating to the acquisition and development of joint interests in international petroleum projects, and international drilling contracts and other service agreements relating to international project operations, both onshore and offshore.
Prior to founding his law firm, Mr. Boigon was a partner in the Denver office of Hogan Lovells, a global law firm. Before joining Hogan Lovells, Mr. Boigon served as Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary at Westport Resources Corporation, an NYSE exploration and production company, and prior to that he was Director, Vice President, General Counsel, and Secretary at Basin Exploration, Inc., another public exploration and production company. He began his legal career with the Denver firm Davis, Graham & Stubbs, where his practice focused on the practice of natural resources law, including oil and gas, mining, and public lands.
Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Boigon served as a law clerk to the Honorable Wade H. McCree, Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, who later became United States Solicitor General. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan for both college and law school. In law school he served on the editorial board of the Michigan Law Review and graduated magna cum laude, third in his class.