Benjamin Kinney is a local estate planning and mineral rights attorney. His estate planning practice focuses on using legal strategies to help families in Colorado and Wyoming protect and preserve their most important assets. He is a Personal Family Lawyer and prepares wills, trusts, health care directives, powers of attorney, and guardianship documents for clients on the Front Range. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Royalty Owners in Colorado (NARO – Colorado) and has experience in assisting clients with the many challenges that can arise from owning or inheriting mineral rights.
Mr. Kinney also specializes in energy law and policy with international experience in developing and post-conflict countries. His energy law practice is focused on helping individuals and businesses navigate the many legal, regulatory and policy challenges in the energy industry. He has provided international legal, regulatory and policy consulting services to foreign governments and corporate clients on oil and gas development and electric power systems. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Kinney served as General Counsel and Legal and Regulatory Specialist for an oil, gas and mining consulting and appraisal firm based in Boulder, Colorado.
Mr. Kinney is a native of Torrington, Wyoming, and attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Russian. After a few years of working in Washington, D.C., Mr. Kinney returned to the University of Wyoming to attend law school and earned his Juris Doctorate. During his studies at the University of Wyoming, Mr. Kinney spent a year in Saratov, Russia on an undergraduate student exchange program. He also completed a summer law program at Novgorod State University in Novgorod and St. Petersburg, Russia, during law school. He is experienced in foreign legal systems and has worked on projects in many countries around the world.
Mr. Kinney’s energy practice combines law, policy, commercial and government/public relations capabilities to build comprehensive strategies and solutions for clients in the energy sector. He enjoys working in challenging markets and his diverse skill set allows him to operate independently or as part of a team to successfully execute a project. Mr. Kinney’s background as an in-house counsel allows him to support clients with all aspects of transaction analysis, including legal and contractual framework support, due diligence and risk assessment, and contract drafting and negotiation support. He can also provide litigation support, policy and legislative consulting and a variety of other services that may be required by governments, businesses and individuals with an interest in project development.
Representative projects and responsibilities from the energy practice include:
- Advising the Government of Albania and the Albanian oil and gas regulator on petroleum contracts, regulatory oversight and sector administration;
- Advising the Government of Honduras on legal and regulatory strategies for a LNG import project;
- Advising the Government of Romania on offshore petroleum regulations and regulatory agency development;
- Supporting the Western Cape Government in South Africa to prepare for unconventional (shale) oil and gas development;
- Assisting the Government of Guyana in modernizing and updating their legal and regulatory framework for upstream petroleum development;
- Assisting the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan oil and gas regulator on Production Sharing Contract (PSC) development and upstream petroleum regulatory development;
- Advising Electricite du Laos on ways to improve their template Power Purchase Agreement and conducting a one-day course on power projects for professional staff of the utility;
- Assisting the Government of Liberia in creating an independent upstream petroleum regulator and supporting efforts to enhance the national upstream petroleum legislative framework;
- Supporting a Middle Eastern government in a multi-billion dollar arbitration proceeding in the London Court of International Arbitration
- Assisting the Federal Government of Somalia and the Somali Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in reviewing existing petroleum contracts and legislation and providing advisory support for modernizing the legal and regulatory framework;
- Assisting the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water in developing organizational structures and reviewing certain aspects of transaction structuring for a LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) project;
- Supporting a group of shareholders in a class-action suit against a mid-size independent oil and gas company with substantial assets in the Rocky Mountains;
- Assisted in preparation of expert witness reports in marital dissolution and other cases involving substantial oil and gas assets; and
- Served as Legal and Regulatory Advisor responsible for providing transaction support for a gas-to-power project in Northern Afghanistan.
Countries of work experience include: Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Guyana, Honduras, Iraq (KRG), Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Romania, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
Mr. Kinney’s past clients have included businesses, government contractors, domestic and foreign governments and multilateral development banks and institutions, among others. Mr. Kinney is a licensed attorney in the State of Wyoming and State of Colorado. He has been admitted to practice before the Federal District Court of Wyoming.
