Drake D. Hill

CV

Mr. Hill has a rich legal background. After graduating from the University of Wyoming College of Law in 1988, Drake served as in-house counsel for the Coastal Corporation and ANR Pipeline Company in Detroit, Michigan defending “take-or-pay” claims by natural gas producers. His experience at Coastal helped him to develop an expertise in a wide range of oil and gas issues. After five years with Coastal, he joined a tax and business firm in Southfield, Michigan and worked as a trial lawyer in commercial litigation. Drake acted as lead trial counsel on the case declaring unconstitutional the City of Detroit’s minority set aside (affirmative action) program in public contracting.

 

In 1996, Drake returned to Wyoming and joined the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office as the attorney responsible for seeking cost recovery of the nearly $1.5 billion expected to be spent on state funded clean-up of leaking underground storage tank sites. He also acted as counsel to the Department of Environmental Quality in other capacities. In addition to his representation of the Department of Environmental Quality, Drake later served as chief tax counsel and was the supervising attorney for the Departments of Revenue and Audit and the Banking Commission. He acted as co-counsel for the state of New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah, Montana, and Wyoming in the amicus effort before the United States Supreme Court in Amoco Production Co. et al. v. Southern Ute Indian Tribe in the successful effort to overturn the decision of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals relating to the ownership of coalbed methane gas.

While attending the University of Wyoming College of Law, Drake served as an editor on the Land and Water Law Review and was the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Book Award for Federal Courts. He believes that there is no more important skill to a lawyer than writing. To this end, he has published articles in the Temple Law Review, the Rutgers Law Review, the Hastings Constitutional Law Review (University of California), the Wyoming Law Review, and the Land and Water Law Review. Drake served as the Chairman of Lawyer Mentoring Committee of the Wyoming State Bar and was the Chairman of the Wyoming Republican Party from 2005-2007 and served on the Republican National Committee. He is also a frequent guest speaker on a variety of practice areas and is active in civic affairs.

Drake’s practice is concentrated in business, business litigation, oil and gas, oil and gas litigation, environmental law (including environmental insurance coverage), mineral and property taxation; and employment and general legal requirements facing those doing business in Wyoming.

Drake Hill’s practice areas include Business Planning, Business Litigation, Oil and Gas, Oil and Gas Litigation, Midstream and Downstream, Environmental, Administrative Law, Tax, Trial Practice, Appellate Practice, Real Estate and Contract Law, Insurance Defense, and Coverage.

While the Hill Law Firm is located in Cheyenne, his practice also serves the communities of Casper, Laramie, Gillette, Rock Springs, Sheridan, Green River, Evanston, Riverton, Lander, Cody, Powell, Torrington, Newcastle, Wheatland, Rawlins, Big Piney, Pinedale, Buffalo, Lusk, Douglas, Glenrock, Greybull, Worland, Lovell, Hulette, Saratogo, and everywhere else in the State of Wyoming.

CORE VALUES

What We Believe

It is one of the highest honors to be trusted with helping to meet a person’s legal needs or helping solve a person’s legal problem.  Knowing this, we serve you, we work from a position of respect for you, and we treat you as we would want to be treated.

The law is merely the formalized reflection of common sense.  Our job is take the mystery out of the law to help you understand the law as applied to your issues and to present you with the best solutions possible.

Communication is what builds and maintains the client-lawyer relationship.  We strive to communicate with you on the progress of your matter so that you do not have to initiate the contact with your lawyer simply to figure out where the matter stands.

There is no replacement for knowledge. Knowledge comes in many forms:  knowledge of the law, knowledge of the industries we serve, and knowledge of the lay of the land in Wyoming.  In addition, we seek (at no cost to you) to keep you informed about development that could impact your industry and you.

We believe that writing is the most valuable skill of a lawyer.  The written word is the most frequent mode of expression in the law, and as a result, the writer’s skill can make the biggest difference.  Our work product achieves excellence and the level of our work product—including successful briefs to the United States Supreme Court—reflects this commitment.  We bring this same level of commitment to all that we do and apply best practices the functions we perform.

Our billing structure reflects an attention to keeping overhead costs down so that clients are not paying for costs they really don’t need.  We review the draft of billing statements with you at the end of the month as a method of ensuring that bills serve your ends, not the lawyer’s ends.