Joseph A. Schremmer
Eugene Kuntz Chair of Law in Oil, Gas, & Natural Resources, Oklahoma University
Current association: Eugene Kuntz Chair of Law in Oil, Gas, & Natural Resources, Oklahoma University
Past associations: Judge Leon Karelitz Oil and Gas Law Professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law; Depew, Gillen, Rathbun & McInteer, Wichita, Kansas
Law School: University of Kansas, 2013
Graduate: M.B.A., University of Kansas, 2013
Undergraduate: University of Kansas, 2009, B.S. in journalism, B.A. in political science
Spouse: Kelsey Frobisher Schremmer
Home: Norman, Oklahoma
Favorite restaurant in Norman: It’s a joint called Legends. In bygone days, it was the fine dining option in town, and it hasn’t changed a bit since. Hard to say what exactly I like about it. Maybe it’s the live piano music, or the fact that you always run into somebody you know there. Or maybe it’s just the schnitzel.
EMLF Involvement: Board of Trustees member representing the University of Oklahoma Law School, speaker at past events
You started your career practicing law in Kansas. What sort of work were you doing? A little of everything, but mostly upstream oil and gas work. We were a small firm in a relatively small market, and we served mostly small producers. That meant that I was exposed to a huge variety of work, including title examination (drilling title opinions and division order title opinions), transactions, conservation commission work, civil litigation, and appeals.
How did you get drawn into academia? I discovered that I enjoyed the academic side of law as a student on the law review, but I never imagined I would get to teach. Remarkably, my alma mater called when they needed an adjunct to teach oil and gas law after the faculty member who had been teaching it retired. Around the same time, Professor David Pierce of Washburn University invited my law partner, Chris Steincamp, to deliver a guest lecture in Pierce’s course on environmental regulation of the oil and gas industry. It turned out that Chris couldn’t make it and I went as his substitute. With that experience under my belt, I ended up taking over the course when Professor Pierce started phasing into retirement a few years later. A year or two later, the University of New Mexico was looking for a full-time oil and gas law professor, and Professor Pierce encouraged me to apply. In a nutshell, I owe my teaching career to David Pierce. (Incidentally, Chris Steincamp now teaches both the environmental regulation course at Washburn and the oil and gas course at Kansas.)
You have a book coming out. What is it? Advanced Introduction to U.S. Oil & Gas Law is for lawyers, law students, law professors, and lay people who want to know what makes oil and gas law tick. It tries to concisely present the problems, policies, and doctrines of the field, while tracing how these have evolved over time with developments in geology, technology, business, and legal philosophy. It clocks in well under 200 pages, which is probably its best feature.
You travel some for work. Do you find time to travel for fun? Do you have a favorite place to visit? I’m not much of a pleasure traveler, but my wife sometimes joins me on work trips, and we make a little vacation of it. If frequency is any indicator, our favorite place to travel is back home to Kansas, which is a two-hour drive from our home in Norman. It’s a pretty drive, if you like the plains.
Any hobbies? If watching other people play sports counts, I have several hobbies! Thunder basketball, Kansas basketball, Sooner football, and Kansas City Chiefs football are my favorites. I also like to read (law, history, biography, and theology are my favorite genres) and occasionally play some golf.
You have been involved with the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation and given it untold hours of your time. What is it about EMLF that has prompted you to give so much time to the organization when you have a busy law practice and a family? I’ve had a blast and learned a lot at every EMLF event I’ve ever attended. EMLF members are smart, interesting, and wonderfully down to earth. Every one of them cares about the organization. Plus, I love EMLF because it continues to build up the field of mineral law with serious and pertinent scholarship, and that is an increasingly rare thing, I think.
You practiced law for a while and had success. Is there any advice you would give to new lawyers and law students who are about to become lawyers? Being a lawyer can be a lot of work and worry, but as the Ecclesiastes 2:24 teaches, “There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil.” So, my advice is to find the good in your work and enjoy it! A big part of that is finding a community of fun and decent people to practice with. EMLF is a great place to look for such a thing.