Marie Yeates

Practice Areas

Marie Yeates is one of the country’s leading appellate lawyers. She serves as Head of V&E’s Appellate practice.

Over the course of a nearly four-decade-long career at V&E, Marie has presented more than 130 appellate oral arguments in federal and state appellate courts across the country. She has argued dozens of cases in the Texas Supreme Court. A graduate of Louisiana State University School of Law where Marie was first in her class, and admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1980, she has significant experience arguing appeals in Louisiana courts.

Marie represents clients in the oil and gas industry, as well as other sectors, and is widely recognized for her intelligence, tenacity, perfectionism and detailed preparation. She is the recipient of multiple accolades and awards including the Texas Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 and 2020. The National Law Journal named Marie one of the country’s Top 50 Women Litigators in 2001, and she is regularly cited by Chambers USA.

Marie credits her collaborative approach and her ability to simplify complicated concepts as the keys to her successful outcomes. Among her recent victories, she obtained reversal in the Texas Supreme Court of an intermediate appellate court ruling that had denied Anadarko Petroleum Corp.’s claim against Lloyd’s of London for Anadarko’s multimillion-dollar defense costs arising out of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon incident.

In a matter involving Denbury Resources, Marie convinced the Texas Supreme Court to accept review for a second time and obtained a ruling that clarified the Texas law test for when a pipeline qualifies for “common carrier” status with the power of eminent domain.

The decisions in both cases were victories not only for Marie’s clients, but also for the energy industry at large.

Before entering private practice, Marie served as a judicial clerk to The Honorable Alvin B. Rubin in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Marie has been a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers since its inception in 1997.

Career

Louisiana Bar, 1980; Texas Bar, 1982. Joined V&E: 1981; partnership admission: 1988.

Professional Memberships

American Academy of Appellate Lawyers since 1997.

Personal

Louisiana State University, BS, 1977 (summa cum laude); Louisiana State University School of Law, JD, 1980 (first in class); Editor-in-Chief, 'Louisiana Law Review'; clerk US Fifth Circuit Judge Alvin Rubin, 1980-81.