BIOGRAPHY

Charles Willing, Member

Summary

Charles’s practice focuses on general civil litigation, with an emphasis on complex litigation in the areas of environmental, energy, oil and gas, contracts, construction defects, real estate, and trusts/estates, and on regulatory matters, with an emphasis on energy and environmental. His regulatory practice incorporates all oil and gas conservation matters before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and compliance/enforcement matters before the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. Given his education and years of experience as a petroleum engineer, Charles is adept at working with technical experts across all areas of expertise.

Biography

Charles was born in Houston, Texas and split his childhood between Houston and Anchorage, Alaska, graduating from Service High School. He attended the University of Oklahoma and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering in 1985. After college, Charles worked for Conoco, Inc. in its Oklahoma City exploration and production office, handling production engineering related matters for oil and gas fields in the Texas Panhandle and California. While working for Conoco, he attended the evening program at Oklahoma City University’s law school, graduating cum laude in 1993.

After law school, Charles began his legal career in a boutique litigation firm in Oklahoma City before joining the Oklahoma Corporation Commission as an administrative law judge in 1997. At the OCC, he presided over thousands of hearings and 80 protested trials related to oil and gas conservation matters, remediation of oil and gas-related pollution, enforcement actions, and the underground petroleum storage tank indemnity program.

Charles returned to private practice in 2002, joining the regional firm of Gardere Wynne in Tulsa, where his practice focused on energy-related matters, including environmental and oil and gas litigation, as well as oil and gas conservation and environmental-related regulatory matters, and general litigation, including telecommunications and consumer-related issues. He then joined Fellers Snider, where he continued his energy-related practice and expanded his litigation practice to contracts, construction defects (including EIFS-related claims), real estate, trusts and estates, and bad faith insurance defense.

In the spring of 2013, Charles was approached about creating and teaching a graduate level business course at the University of Tulsa on the “Legal and Regulatory Environment of the Energy Industry,” as part of the Masters of Energy Business program in the Collins College of Business. The program is intended to train the next generation of energy industry leaders. He taught the course for three years. The course dealt primarily with the legal and regulatory environment of the domestic oil and gas industry, using Oklahoma as a primary vehicle, along with other oil and gas producing states such as Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, North Dakota and Pennsylvania. It also addressed oil and gas development on federal lands, environmental-related issues, Indian law issues related to energy development, state and federal transportation issues, federal issues such as OSHA and Sarbanes-Oxley, as well as current issues in oil and gas-related litigation.

In 2018, Charles joined Barber & Bartz, where his practice focused on general civil litigation, including various contract disputes, intellectual property (trademark and trade secrets), and construction defects, including litigation related to large industrial compressors and industrial heaters for chemical plants.

Returning to his roots, Charles joined Environmental Energy and Natural Resources Advocates in 2025 to focus his practice in the areas of environmental, energy, and natural resources.

Education

University of Oklahoma, B.S. in Petroleum Engineering 1985
Oklahoma City University School of Law, J.D., cum laude 1993

Admitted To Practice

Oklahoma 1993
United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma 1993
United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma 2002
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma 2008
United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit 1994

Representative Matters

• Successfully resolved claims against a compressor manufacturer alleging damage to an industrial compressor. D&D Mechanical, Inc. v Industrial Turnaround Corporation, et al., Case No. CL19-1773-00, In the Circuit Court of Chesterfield County, Virginia.

• Successfully resolved claims against an industrial heater company alleging defects in industrial heaters. South Hampton Resources, Inc. v Tulsa Heaters, Inc., Case No. 1:18-cv-00418-MAC, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

• Successfully resolved multi-million dollar claim against an aggregate mining company for breach of mining lease. Hanson Aggregates, LLC v. Ashby Investments, LLC, Case No. CV-2011-380, Tulsa County District Court.

• Successfully defended EIFS installer from any liability for a multi-million dollar claim alleging defects and negligence caused extensive water damage to the six-story hospital tower. SouthCrest LLC v Bovis Lend Lease, Inc., et al, Case No. 10-CV-0362, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

• Successfully defended an insurance carrier from any liability for breach of contract and bad faith related to claims under a med pay policy. Morecraft v. Farmers Ins. Co., Inc., 2012 WL 1081178 (N.D. Okla. 2012).

• Successfully defended incumbent local exchange carrier at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and on appeal in federal court, from multi-million dollar claim by a competitive local exchange carrier for reciprocal compensation. CCCOK, Inc. v. Southwestern Bell Telephone, L.P., 2010 WL 5376323 (W.D. Okla. 2010).

• Successfully defended insurance carrier from any liability for breach of contract and bad faith related to claim under a medical policy. Oldenkamp v. United American Ins. Co., 619 F.3d 1243 (10th Cir. 2010).

• Successfully defended wireless carrier from any liability for claim of negligence for failure to provide cell site location information on missing person. Frey v. AT & T Mobility, LLC, 379 Fed.Appx. 727 (10th Cir. 2010).

• In a case of first impression, successfully defended oil and gas owners’ rights to coalbed methane gas against a claim of ownership by the coal seam owner. Central Natural Resources, Inc. v. Davis Operating Company, 201 P.3d 680 (Kan. 2009).

• Assisted incumbent local exchange carrier in obtaining reduced regulatory oversight from state regulatory agency. Cox Oklahoma Telecom, LLC, v. State ex rel. Oklahoma Corp. Com’n, 164 P.3d 150 (Okla. 2007).

• Assisted with state regulatory agency approval of incumbent local exchange carrier’s interconnection agreements with competitive local exchange carriers.

• Managed environmental enforcement issues with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality associated with a product terminal.

• Managed environmental permitting and enforcement issues associated with natural gas compressor station.

• Managed a wide variety of environmental enforcement issues related to a company’s retained environmental liabilities associated with divestiture of a mid-stream subsidiary.

• Performed environmental due diligence related to project refinance of a gas-fired electric generating plant.

• Performed environmental due diligence related to acquisitions of oil and gas properties and facilities.