Keith has enjoyed a career of almost 40 years (over 30 as partner) with several prominent international law firms, with a primary focus on the oil and gas industry. His extensive experience encompasses mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity financings, securities regulations, corporate restructuring and corporate governance. Likewise, his practice has taken him around the world, especially to areas of greatest activity in the upstream petroleum sector.

In the early part of his career at Thompson & Knight in Dallas (where he practiced as a partner until the mid-1990’s) Keith spent much of his time working for the investment departments of a number of the largest North American financial institutions, on innovative financing structures involving the petroleum industry. Close and regular interaction with tax advisors was essential to the success of these deals. He also played a leading role in acquisitions and financings for several of the largest Latin American holding companies.

From 1996, Keith’s practice base shifted to London, where he founded and led an office for Akin Gump. From his arrival until his retirement as a partner of Vinson & Elkins in 2014, he developed a practice that included as clients several large financial institutions, a number of U.S. and European based international oil companies, large Chinese, Russian and African state owned enterprises, British companies (ranging in size from EnCore Oil plc to Centrica), private equity houses (including KKR) and companies whose fortunes rose on accelerated timelines from initial financing to exit (such as Intrepid Energy and PetroWorld/Coastal Energy). He has been recognized repeatedly as being among the world’s leading energy lawyers by Chambers Leading Individuals, Legal 500, and Euromoney’s Guides.

Keith’s broad experience in representing clients with different perspectives (as demonstrated by his client base) has given him the ability to understand the differing requirements and viewpoints of counter-parties to a wide variety of transactions in a number of regions around the world. Although his overriding industry experience has been in oil and gas, he has also played the lead legal role in other major transactions such as GE’s purchase of Enron’s European wind energy business and several international acquisitions and dispositions of manufacturing divisions by a major German company (affiliate of the MAN Group).

Keith is well known in the international oil industry, both from the large number of transactions where he has led the legal team representing one of the major participants, and for his active role as speaker and panelist – particularly over the last ten years in respect to African energy projects.

In addition to advising companies on various corporate governance issues (including responsibilities of directors and correct procedures for internal investigations), Keith has served as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of EnCore Oil plc and as a Managing Director of Bluestone Resources Management Company Ltd, which managed producing oil properties in Indonesia.

Keith attended Louisiana State University (B.A. in Political Science and Soviet Area Studies, magna cum laude, 1972), Duke University School of Law (J.D. with Distinction, 1976 – Editorial Board, Duke Law Journal) and University of St Andrews, Scotland (1973-1974), where he read Moral Philosophy. He is admitted to practice law in Texas and before the U.S. federal courts, and was a Registered Foreign Lawyer with the Law Society of England and Wales, 1997 – 2014.