Jeff Goldman joined Gordon Arata in 2024 as part of the litigation team. Jeff began his career representing the energy industry in environmental and commercial suits.  His practice has since included energy regulatory matters, commercial litigation, construction litigation, employment and professional liability litigation, insurance coverage and defense, and even asbestos litigation. Jeff has represented multiple E&P clients at trial in legacy, commercial, and indemnity lawsuits.  Jeff has also advised clients in commercial, real estate and regulatory matters.

Admissions

  • Louisiana
  • Texas
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of LA
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of LA

Education

  • Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, J.D., cum laude, 2006
  • Davidson College, B.A., English Literature, 2001

Languages

  • English

Practices

  • Appellate
  • Commercial Litigation
  • Construction
  • Employment
  • Environmental and Toxic Torts
  • Insurance
  • Oil, Gas and Energy Litigation and Arbitration
  • Oil, Gas and Energy Regulatory
  • Oil, Gas and Energy Transactions
  • Oilfield Service Company Transactions and Litigation
  • Pipeline, Storage and Transmission
  • Professional Liability Defense
  • Real Estate and Commercial Leasing
  • Renewable Energy

Industries

  • Chemical, Industrial and Manufacturing
  • Energy and Natural Resources
  • Construction
  • Insurance

Experience

  • Represented oil producers in multiple “legacy” lawsuits with landowners regarding cleanup of oil field sites, including:
    • Primeaux v. Exxon (extremely complex legacy suit, located in 85-year-old field containing multiple lease chains, over salt dome and adjacent to Strategic Petroleum Reserve facility)
    • Dore v. Exxon (trial of legacy lawsuit in Cameron Parish)
    • Sweetlake Land and Oil v. Exxon – (legacy suit in Cameron Parish)
    • Cameron Parish School Board v. Aspect Energy, LLC – (legacy suit in Cameron Parish, in which plaintiffs demanded $1.25 billion in damages)
  • Bayou Corne Sinkhole Litigation (series of interrelated environmental, property damage, indemnity, and other commercial lawsuits arising from the collapse of a storage/former brine-mining cavern in Assumption Parish)
  • Noble Energy Inc., v. Prospective Investment & Trading Company – (trial of indemnity claims arising from settled legacy suit from petition through trial)
  • McCarthy v. Evolution Petroleum Corp. - Represented American Association of Professional Landmen and filed amicus brief to Louisiana Supreme Court on its behalf in support of defendant oil company accused of defrauding its lessees by purchasing their royalties without sufficiently informing them of the value of those royalties. The effect of plaintiffs’ claims would have been to make a mineral lessee the fiduciary of his lessor.
  • Counseled E&P and other companies negotiating purchases and sales of environmentally sensitive properties.
  • Counseled E&P companies in negotiations with landowners to adequately remediate property to regulatory standards without triggering lawsuit.
  • Represented E&P companies and oilfield services companies in various commercial disputes.
  • Advised pipeline company on reactivation of pipeline whose servitudes had prescribed through non-use.
  • Represented and advised E&P companies on various regulatory matters before multiple agencies.
  • Represented industrial plants in environmental, property damage, and personal injury litigation.
  • Represented hotel developer in complex, high-value construction litigation resulting from hotel collapse in downtown New Orleans.
  • Represented construction companies and property owners in construction and disaster recovery contract litigation.
  • Represented various companies in pay discrimination and employee harassment and retaliation suits.
  • Represented government entity in multiple regulatory, employment, public relations, and open government matters.
  • Represented asbestos victims in lawsuits in both federal and state courts.

Affiliations

  • PLANO (Professional Landman’s Association of New Orleans)
  • New Orleans Bar Association

News

  • Anthony Marino and Jefferson Goldman Join Gordon Arata

Publications

  • “I’m Not My Lessor’s Keeper!,” AAPL’s Landmen (March/April 2016)
  • “Am I my Lessor’s Keeper? Louisiana Second Circuit Places New Duties on Mineral Lessees,” APAPL’s Landmen (March/April 2015)

Presentations

  • Landmen, Lawyers, and the Unauthorized Practice of Law in Louisiana and Elsewhere, Gulf Coast Land Institute (October 2017)
  • Offshore Liens, Presented at the LORMAN Emerging Louisiana Legal and Land Issues on the Outer Continental Shelf, March 18, 2014