Thompson & Knight Attorney Recognized as 2007 Outstanding Tax Lawyer

Dallas (May 2007) – The international law firm of Thompson & Knight is proud to announce former Managing Partner Buford P. Berry has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 Outstanding Texas Tax Lawyer Award. The award is bestowed by the State Bar of Texas Section of Taxation for a lifetime of significant contributions and experience relating to taxation law and will be presented at the Texas Tax Institute in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, June 8.

Mr. Berry began his legal career in 1963 at Thompson & Knight in Dallas. He served as the Firm’s Managing Partner from 1986-1998, and has a national reputation as one of the top oil and gas tax lawyers and tax litigation lawyers in the country. Mr. Berry has represented large corporate taxpayers, including Texaco Inc., Sun Oil Co., Gulf Oil Corporation, Hamilton Brothers, Hermes, Mapco, and Texas Instruments, Inc. During his career, he has been involved in 37 reported tax cases, of which, a number involved precedent setting issues in the petroleum industry and other areas of tax law; examples include Sun Company Inc. v. Commissioner, which established for the oil and gas industry that the costs of drilling offshore exploratory oil wells are deductible as intangible drilling costs, and Texas Inc. v. Commissioner, which involved the transfer pricing of Saudi Arabian crude oil over the period 1979-1981 and was the largest alleged tax deficiency ever before the Tax Court to date. He currently serves as Of Counsel at Thompson & Knight, a Director of Holly Corporation, and an Independent Manager of Dorchester Minerals Management L.P.

Additionally, Mr. Berry is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel, the American Bar Foundation, and the Texas Bar Foundation. He was very active in the American Bar Association Tax Section and served as Chair of the Natural Resources Committee. He also served as Chair of the Southwest Legal Foundation Oil and Gas Institute and as the Vice Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Energy Law of the Center for American and International Law.

About Thompson & Knight

Since 1887, Thompson & Knight LLP has consistently made a positive impact on its clients’ successes. With its practice focused on the energy industry, the Firm has extensive resources in litigation, tax, insolvency, and international energy matters. The Firm has approximately 420 attorneys, and has offices and alliances in North America, South America, Europe, and Africa. Thompson & Knight represents companies, government entities, and individuals in local, regional, and national markets around the world.