Special Counsel Norman Nadorff, is located in Houston and works extensively with the firm’s 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.

Norman has dealt with a wide range of commercial contracts, including farmout, unitization, joint operating, study and bidding, EPC, drilling and wellsite 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 resolve various commercial disputes.

A law professor at the University of Houston Law Center since 2012, Norman has taught International Petroleum Agreements in several other U.S. and foreign law schools, including Agostinho Neto University Faculty of Law in Angola (“FDUAN”). In 2006, he played key roles in the creation of a pioneering international oil and gas postgraduate program at FDUAN, which is in its seventeenth 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. He is currently a Director of the Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce and a former Director of the Association of International Energy Negotiators in which he is active in several capacities, including Co-Chair of the 2022 and 2023 Model Contracts Workshops and member of the Education Advisory Board.