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Brandon Duck

Brandon Hauver

Ryan Parsley

Eric Hoffman

James Murphy

Jordan Strauss

SMU Dedman School of Law students are “sweeping the boards” for resources law scholarships and awards.   Brandon Hauver, Eric Hoffman, Ryan Parsley, and Jordan Strauss have been awarded scholarships by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation. Hauver, Parsley, and Strauss also received scholarship awards from the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation in a separate competition.  The scholarship programs date back to the 1970s, and are given on the basis of merit to law students with an interest in and potential to advance natural resources law, which is broadly defined as oil and gas, mining, water, and environmental law. Hauver, Hoffman, Parsley, and Strauss join a long list of SMU Dedman Law students who have received the awards. 
 
In newer competitions, The Association of International Petroleum Negotiators awarded Brandon Duck a research grant for the summer to support research on international issues relating to fracking of shale formations. Brandon Hauver is the recipient of one of the thirteen AIPN scholarships awarded for the 2012-2013 academic year.  James Patrick Murphy won AIPN’s writing competition for a paper on the potential influence of AIPN’s Model Form Operating Agreement on U.S. contracts. 
 
The value of the awards given to the students is nearly $100,000.
 
“SMU Dedman Law students win more than their fair share of the resources law awards” said John Lowe, the Hutchison Professor of Energy Law and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.  “The primary reason is the quality of our students.  It’s easy to see when you look at the resumes of people like Brandon Duck, Brandon Hauver, Eric Hoffman, Patrick Murphy, Ryan Parsley, or Jordan Strauss that they are likely to have a substantial impact in whatever field they practice.  These organizations want to encourage people like them to work in the resources-law area.  A secondary factor is that SMU Dedman School of Law has a history of excellence in resources law, both domestically and internationally, that goes back more than 60 years.  People expect our students to be good -- and they are!”