Luke Meier (Baylor) has a new article coming out out titled Drafting a Texas Oil and Gas Lease to Ensure Enforceability of a Consent-to-Assign Clause: How to Make an Oil and Gas ‘Lease’ a Lease, 50 Tex. Tech L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2017). The article builds on previous works Luke has written that closely examine oil and gas leases. The article argues that, through a simple drafting trick, a “true” term lease can be created when drafting an oil and gas lease, thus preventing a court from striking a consent-to-assign clause as an illegal alienation restraint of a fee estate. The article has a particular focus on Texas law, but the notion has far more reaching application for all involved in oil and gas law.
