Norman Nadorff

Norman Nadorff is Special Counsel to the Mayer Brown law firm. He is located in Houston and works closely with the Rio de Janeiro office. His practice centers on energy law and transactions and ethics law compliance.

 

For 30 years, Norman served as in-house counsel for major oil companies with primary focus on Latin America, West Africa and Indonesia. He was Senior Counsel for BP in Angola from 2006 to 2015 as well as Legal Manager for BP Brazil and ARCO Indonesia, where he held two expatriate assignments in the 1990’s. In addition, Norman was worldwide Legal Manager for BP Solar in the early 2000’s.
Norman has dealt with a wide range of commercial documents, including farmout, unitization, joint operating, study and bidding, EPC, drilling and drilling services, gas sales, shareholder, joint venture, and project finance agreements, as well as a wide variety of host government granting instruments. At ARCO, Norman wrote the Company’s policies on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, US Anti-boycott laws and US Export Regulations. He has participated in corruption, fraud, conflict of interest and hostage-taking investigations and helped resolved various commercial disputes.

 

Norman has been Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center since 2012 and has taught International Petroleum Agreements in several US and foreign law schools. In 2006, he played key roles in the creation of a pioneering international oil and gas master’s program at Angola’s national law school, which is now in its sixteenth year. Norman lectures frequently on petroleum law, anti-corruption laws, contract drafting and negotiations, and development of local talent.

 

Norman is fluent in Portuguese and Spanish, proficient in French, and has experience negotiating in all three languages.

 

Norman first joined AIEN in the late 1980s and since then:

 

• served as Director (2006-2009)
• was given Academic Award (2009)
• was named a Distinguished Negotiator (2022) as part of the US Chapter
• served as Co-Chair, Model Contracts Workshop (2022 and 2023)
• taught in Core Course (South Africa, 2009)
• served on several Model Contract Drafting Committees
• organized several AIEN regional events in Angola
• was Co-Chair of Scholarship Committee
• served as a judge for the Student Writing Competition
• created the (short-lived) Greatest Stories Never Told feature in the former AIPN monthly newsletter
• has served for many years on the Editorial Board of the AIEN/Oxford Press Journal of World Law, Energy and Business (JWLEB)
• co-presented a Mock JOA Negotiation at the AIEN International Energy Summit in Miami (2023)
• has published several articles in the JWLEB
• has lectured, moderated and served as a panelist at various AIEN events, including the AIEN Workshop at NAPE
• serves on the Education Advisory Board (EAB)
• is currently a member of the AIEN US Chapter Organizing Committee
• has presented a course titled, Drafting and Negotiating International Petroleum Agreements, and which is built around the AIEN Model Agreements, at many law schools, government agencies and companies around the world.

When asked to describe a specific way in which the AIEN aided him over these decades, Norman pointed to his nine-year stint in Angola, in particular the creation, at Agostinho Neto University, of an annual post-graduate program in oil and gas law and commerce which exists to this day. (His article about the program can be found in the April 2018 JWELB). He recalls, “Once I had convinced my employer, BP, to support both financially and technically the project, a huge question remained: who will teach these courses? Using contacts made in the AIEN over the years, I reached out to professors and practitioners such as Owen Anderson, Marilda Rosado, John Lowe and Alexandre Chequer, who not only offered courses themselves but arranged for others to do the same. Over the years, the AIEN and its members have been supportive of this unique energy industry education program which has graduated over 700 professionals, many of whom now hold high positions in the industry in Angola and beyond.”