John A. Thomas

Brief Biography

John’s practice focuses on corporate, transactional and oil and gas matters. As a former long-time solo general counsel and having worked as a transactional insurance broker, he is well versed in a wide range of legal practice areas and routinely handles financings; mergers and acquisitions; oil & gas matters; complex contract drafting, review, and negotiations; corporate governance issues; dispute resolution oversight; transactional insurance procurement; and other business matters.  He also serves as outsourced General Counsel for small and mid-size companies without an in-house legal function.

The Rest of the Story

John grew up in a small town in north-central Oklahoma, the youngest of five children.  Throughout his childhood, John enjoyed exploring the outdoors, playing sports and other games with friends, spending time with animals, and visiting the family farm.

John attended a college preparatory boarding school, graduating from Culver Military Academy – the Culver Academies.  He received a B.S. in Accounting and Business Administration from Oklahoma State University in 1991.  Following graduation John moved to Houston and obtained his M.B.A. from the University of Houston in 1993.  He then began a career in corporate and investment banking and spent three years working for large international financial intuitions primarily focused on servicing the needs of energy clients.

John then decided a career change was in order and moved to Dallas to attend law school at Southern Methodist University, from which he received a J.D. in 1999, magna cum laude.  While at SMU, John served as an Articles Editor on the SMU Law Review and a Research Assistant for Professor John Lowe, the George W. Hutchison Chair in Energy Law.  Following law school John returned to Houston and began his law practice at Vinson & Elkins LLP, a preeminent Texas-based full-service law firm.  After having four children in his early years of practice John decided to go in-house with Apache Corporation, a large publicly-traded oil and gas company.  After two years at Apache John was recruited away for his first General Counsel role, although the company was unstable and John soon returned to V&E.  After several years there he returned to in-house practice with one of his clients by joining Crimson Exploration Inc. as General Counsel in 2011.  John has served as the General Counsel of three different oil & gas companies over approximately 10 years, most recently serving as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of the general partner of Vine Oil & Gas LP, a Blackstone portfolio company.  John also served as an Executive Director and head of the Texas practice for a specialist insurance broker focused exclusively on transactional insurance (RWI, tax insurance, etc.) from 2022 to 2024.

John is a proud and devoted father of four and grandfather of one and enjoys spending time with his children and grandchildren and witnessing their growth and accomplishments.  His oldest son and only daughter have graduated from college and are gainfully employed in their chosen fields while his two younger boys are in college.  John enjoys traveling, golfing, hiking, biking, the arts, and generally being outdoors in his free time.  John lives in The Woodlands, Texas.

John is admitted to practice law in Texas and Oklahoma.  Over the years he has been an active member of the Texas Bar Association, the Oklahoma Bar Association, the Houston Bar Association, the Texas General Counsel Forum, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, and the Houston Producers Forum.  John’s professional awards and recognition include being listed as one of Houston’s top lawyers in Corporate, Oil & Gas and Finance Law for 2011 by H Texas magazine, being a finalist for the Houston Business Journal’s Outstanding Solo General Counsel award in 2016, and having the merger between Crimson Exploration Inc. and Contango Oil & Gas Company, in which he played an instrumental role, named as a 2013 Transaction of the Year by the Oil & Gas Financial Journal.

John joined Grable Martin PLLC in January 2021 and is proud to be a member of the GM team.  The firm is focused on a forward-thinking, entrepreneurial approach to the practice of law and provides clients with quality legal services by experienced attorneys performed from a low overhead platform.