News

In an important decision for owners of vessels and Louisiana shipyards, the Louisiana Supreme Court has held that the materials used in major vessel reconstruction work done in Louisiana are exempt from sales/use taxes. Liskow shareholders involved were Robert S. Angelico and Cheryl Kornick. 

Liskow Shareholder Kelly Becker has been selected to New Orleans CityBusiness’ Leadership in Law 2016. As one of Liskow’s younger shareholders, Kelly provides and demonstrates leadership within the firm as well as throughout the greater New Orleans community.

Kelly is a member of the firm’s litigation section. Her practice focuses on appellate and energy-related issues. In her appellate practice, she has been retained to assess the likelihood of success on appeal, and she has handled appeals in the Louisiana courts of appeal, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal.

Kelly has experience with administrative appeals, including numerous appeals to the Louisiana Tax Commission and the Louisiana Board of Tax Appeals. Her oil and gas practice includes work on the cutting edge of a number of issues in Louisiana, including landowner/mineral lease disputes, interpretation of joint operating agreements, legacy litigation, payment of royalties, lease maintenance, lease developments, assignment of lease interests, severance tax payments, and ad valorem taxes. 

One of Kelly’s favorite things about her practice is the opportunity to take a complex legal issue and make it understandable and user-friendly to a specific audience. True to the leader she is, Kelly enjoys being active in cases that make their way to the Louisiana Supreme Court because this allows her to be involved in decisions that shape the policies of the state for years to come. 

She received her B.A. degree, with distinction, from the University of Virginia in 1998, and her J.D. degree, Order of the Coif, from the Paul M. Hebert, Louisiana State University Law Center in 2001.

Since 2005, CityBusiness has published a special edition of the publication profiling 50 area attorneys, court-associated professionals, and educators who have established themselves as leaders through their distinctive professional contributions and community involvement, and has spotlighted several of Greater New Orleans’ most prominent leaders in the legal field.

Click here to view this year’s class.

Liskow is pleased to announce Lawrence Simon has been awarded the Institute of Energy Law’s Lifetime Achievement in Energy Litigation Award. 

At the Annual Energy Litigation Conference each November, this award is made to an energy litigator whose achievements either in the course of his or her career or during a particular piece or series of litigation have won the admiration of peers. 

Lawrence Simon graduated from Tulane Law School in 1972, and has practiced law with Liskow & Lewis in the firm’s Lafayette office for the past 43 years. Litigation matters involving oil, gas and property issues are the focus of Mr. Simon’s practice. For three decades, he has handled a wide variety of general commercial disputes in federal and state courts throughout Louisiana. 

His extensive experience in energy litigation cases covers all of the major substantive areas affecting the oil and gas industry for the past four decades, including broad experience litigating issues involving regulatory rulings and orders of the Department of Conservation. His litigation practice has emphasized oil and gas royalty and other mineral lease issues, energy marketing contract disputes and cases involving the processing of natural gas and the contracts affecting those operations. 

Mr. Simon has been recognized by Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers. He is also a fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. In addition to his active practice, Mr. Simon has served both in the House of Delegates and on the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association and was president of the Young Lawyers section of the Louisiana Bar. He also served on the Board of the Young Lawyer Division of the ABA and on the Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society. He likewise was past president of the American Inn of Court of Acadiana. Mr. Simon has been active in the Institute of Energy Law for many years and is currently Senior Vice-Chair of the IEL. 

Liskow has been named “Law Firm of the Year” in the United States for Oil & Gas in the 2016 edition of U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers®, Woodward White, Inc. 

Since Liskow’s inception eighty years ago, the firm has focused on serving the oil and gas industry. Widely recognized as leaders in the development of Louisiana mineral law, today the firm’s nearly 140 attorneys serve clients along the Gulf Coast and across the United States from offices in New Orleans and Lafayette, Louisiana and Houston, Texas. The firm advises, counsels and advocates for global giants, regional leaders and entrepreneurs alike, offering clients deep experience in the matters that inevitably impact business goals. 

One law firm in each of 74 practice areas receives the prestigious 2016 “Law Firm of the Year” recognition. 

About the designation

The U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys in their field, and review of additional information provided by law firms as part of the formal submission process. Clients and peers were asked to evaluate firms based on the following criteria: responsiveness, understanding of a business and its needs, cost-effectiveness, integrity and civility, as well as whether they would refer a matter to the firm and/or consider the firm a worthy competitor.