Edward D. Hughes

Taylor Porter Partner Eddie Hughes serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.

Eddie’s primary areas of practice includes commercial litigation, oil and gas litigation and transactions, toxic tort litigation, and insurance defense and casualty litigation. He brings his unique experience as a former independent petroleum landman to counsel clients on both transactional and litigation matters involving the oil and gas industry.

He advises and represents clients in disputes involving joint operating agreements, areas of mutual interest, oil and gas royalty or overriding royalty, oil and gas leases, energy marketing contracts, joint billing issues, operator/working interest owner issues, and cases involving “downhole” negligence issues. He represents a wide range of clients in “legacy lawsuits,” which generally involve claims of environmental contamination and remediation, short-term and long-term exposure to hazardous materials, naturally occurring radioactive material (“NORM”), oil field waste, and products liability on lands with or near oil and gas operations.

In addition to his litigation experience, Eddie advises and represents clients on matters related to mineral title examinations, including leasehold, drillsite, and division order title opinions, both onshore and offshore.

Eddie has extensive experience in contract and agreement preparation including purchase and sale agreements, surface and subsurface leases, mineral leases, operating agreements, voluntary and reservoir-wide unit agreements, farmouts, subleases, assignments of leases and overriding royalties, and various curative instruments. He regularly appears before the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources Commissioner of Conservation regarding unitization matters.

Eddie has argued before Louisiana state and federal district courts, Louisiana appellate courts, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Louisiana Supreme Court.

In 2023, Eddie received mediation training through the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

Eddie received his J.D. from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center where he was a member of the Louisiana Law Review and Order of the Coif. He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) with a B.A. in 1994. Before law school, Eddie worked as an independent petroleum landman where he negotiated the sale and acquisition of potential and existing oil and gas properties for various small to medium-sized oil and gas exploration companies.

After law school, Eddie served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable James J. Brady, United States District Judge, Middle District of Louisiana.

• Lead counsel for a number of oil and gas operators and working interest owners in various “legacy lawsuits.”
• Counsel for Fortune 100 chemical company in a number of “legacy lawsuits.”
• Counsel for major timber company in a number of “Legacy lawsuits.”
• Counsel for drilling company in suit involving the prosecution of a negligence claim by the operator and working interest owners for negligence against a contractor which resulted in damage to a well bore.
• Counsel for drilling company in suit involving the prosecution of a claim by the operator and against a contractor involving a fee dispute.
• Lead counsel for a group of overriding royalty owners seeking damages against an operator for bad faith termination of overriding royalty interests culminating in a significant verdict in favor of the clients.
• Lead counsel for the subsidiary of a Fortune 500 company defending indemnity and single business enterprise claims arising out of a previous “legacy lawsuit.”
• Lead counsel for an independent exploration company involved in a dispute concerning an area of mutual interest (AMI) and interpretation of a series of joint operating agreements.
• Counsel for a pipeline company in lawsuit involving environmental damage and water contamination arising out of historical pipeline operations.
• Counsel for chemical manufacturer in complex toxic exposure litigation by a former on-site contractor
• Counsel for a state university in a dispute with an oil and gas operator involving contractual and unitization issues on property owned by the university.
• Counsel for a riverboat casino operator in defense of a $600 million Louisiana Unfair Trade Practices claim by a competing license applicant. Jury award for the plaintiff in the amount of $3 million reduced by the trial court to $1.6 million and then overturned on appeal. Applying the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed all of plaintiff’s claims. The Louisiana Supreme Court denied writs and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari.
• Lead counsel for a number of oil and gas operators in a mass tort suit filed by the SLFPA-E for damages arising out of oil and gas operations.
• Lead counsel for various oil and gas operators in a suit filed by two Louisiana parishes for violations of the Coastal Zone Management Act.
• Counsel for a major steel manufacturer seeking to build a plant in Louisiana involving a site with numerous operating natural gas wells.

• Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, J.D., 2003
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette, B.A., 1994
• The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (Harvard Mediation Intense)

• Louisiana, 2003

• Baton Rouge Bar Association
• Louisiana State Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• Louisiana Oil & Gas Association
• Baton Rouge Association of Petroleum Landmen
• Lafayette Association of Petroleum Landmen
• Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (Energy Committee)
• Louisiana Bar Foundation (Capital Area Community Partnership Panel)

• Best Lawyers in America – Energy Regulatory Law

• Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank (Past Chairman on Board of Directors)