Gordon, Arata, McCollam, Duplantis & Eagan, LLC is pleased to announce that Amy Duplantis Gautreaux, Paul B. Simon and Margaret “Peggy” Welsh have become members of the Firm.

Amy Duplantis Gautreaux focuses her law practice on oil and gas title examination, unitization and related oil and gas and commercial transactions.  Her experience encompasses analyzing all levels of oil and gas and real estate title and rendering opinions including surface, mineral, royalty, drilling, division order and leasehold title opinions as well as drafting and interpreting contractual provisions in oil and gas leases, operating agreements, rights of way, surface use agreements and other surface and subsurface agreements.  She is also a licensed title insurance agent for Current Title Agency, L.L.C. (the Firm’s real estate title agency).  Ms. Gautreaux serves as Public and Industry Relations Director for the South Louisiana Chapter of Women’s Energy Network.  She is also a member of the Firm’s Marketing Committee.  This year, Louisiana Super Lawyers named her a Rising Star for her work in Energy and Natural Resources.  She received her J.D. and B.C.L. from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University and her B.A., magna cum laude, from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.  She is admitted to practice law in the state of Louisiana.  She works in the firm’s Lafayette, Louisiana office.

Paul B. Simon serves the Louisiana oil and gas industry.  He handles disputes, corporate matters, acquisitions and appeals for the firm’s oil and gas clients.  He regularly assists clients with issues arising under Louisiana’s Mineral Code and the industry’s primary agreements (JOA’s, mineral leases, participation agreements, etc.), and with regulatory issues before the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation and the Louisiana’s State Mineral and Energy Board.  Before joining the Firm, Paul served as a law clerk to two federal judges, the Honorable W. Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Honorable D. “Dee” Drell, Chief United States District Judge for the Western District of Louisiana.  Paul earned his J.D. from the Law School of Columbia University where he was a James Kent Scholar and a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, the two highest academic honors Columbia Law School awards.  He also received the Parker School Recognition of Achievement in International and Comparative Law, was an editor of the American Review of International Arbitration and was Co-President of the Columbia Society of International Law and Co-Founder and Co-President of the Columbia International Arbitration Association.  Before law school, Paul worked in the Amsterdam office of the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company.  Paul received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Williams College and studied abroad at Oxford University and the Catholic University of Louvain in Flanders, Belgium.  Paul is admitted to practice law in both Louisiana and New York.  He works in the firm’s Lafayette, Louisiana office, where he resides with his wife and daughters.

Margaret “Peggy” Welsh focuses her practice in the areas of corporate, real estate, oil and gas and securities transactions as well as handling regulatory issues before Federal agencies. Her experience includes participating in every stage of many high-profile and challenging corporate transactions, both private and public, and joint ventures. She also has experience in other related practices, including cross-border acquisitions, high-yield debt issuances, real estate, bankruptcies and restructurings, financing arrangements and securitizations. Before joining the Firm, Ms. Welsh worked as a transactional associate in New York at a London-based firm.  Ms. Welsh earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 2009, where she served as a Managing Editor of the Tulane Law Review.  She earned her B.S., with Honors, in Geology-Physics/Mathematics from Brown University in 2002. After law school, she founded the education advocacy arm of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. Before law school, she taught Chemistry, Physical Science and Math at Marion Abramson Senior High School in New Orleans for three years through Teach for America.  Ms. Welsh serves as Membership Director for the South Louisiana Chapter of Women’s Energy Network.  She is admitted to practice law in both Louisiana and New York.  She works in the firm’s New Orleans, Louisiana office.