email address: belmore@perdueandkidd.com

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Ben Elmore was born in Jasper and at age 10 moved to Beaumont, Texas. He spent his early childhood on a working farm outside of Jasper in Bevilport. His family later moved to Beaumont where he attended junior high and high school, after which he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He met his wife, Erin, just before he moved to Houston to attend his first year of law school at South Texas College of Law.  Ben graduated summa cum laude from South Texas. 

Ben has a rich family history of lawyers serving plaintiffs. His grandfather, Joe Tonahill, a co-founder of Texas Trial Lawyers' Association, and a pioneer of plaintiffs' rights, including workers' compensation, product liability and jury reform, was a constant presence in Ben's life, and the primary reason he was drawn to the field of trial law.  Ben, however, began his career as a defense lawyer for Vinson & Elkins, LLP in Houston.

During his years at V&E, Ben practiced commercial litigation with a focus on oil and gas and securities fraud matters.   Ben's oil and gas practice gave him the opportunity to represent some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies in a variety of tort and commercial disputes. Ben’s experience handling commercial disputes involved joint interest billing disputes, pipeline construction disputes, royalty underpayment claims, and a variety of claims for breach of express and implied provisions of oil and gas leases. The types of tort matters that Ben handled ranged from personal injuries and wrongful death actions to claims of negligent operations, resulting in damage to the surface and reservoir. Through this experience, Ben gained extensive knowledge and understanding of the science and logistics behind oil and gas development and production.  

Ben's work defending oil companies, however, clashed with his growing desire to educate and represent royalty owners.  Ben understands that royalty owners are oftentimes at a disadvantage when it comes to leasing and oil and gas production activities affecting their interests.  Oil companies routinely take advantage of this fact.  Ben and his family are royalty owners in Jasper and Newton Counties, and on behalf of his family, Ben joined the Texas Land & Mineral Owners Association in further effort to support the fight to protect royalty owners' rights.

Ben's current oil and gas practice includes:

• Representation of royalty owners in breach of lease disputes with their lessee, including failure to develop and protect the elasehold from drainage, and royalty underpayment cases;
• Assisting royalty owners in negotiating more favorable terms in their leases;
• Representation of a natural gas processor in pursuing damages resulting from conversion of its oil field equipment;
• Representation of a pipeline company in defending its title to a Canadian pipeline;
• Representation of a pipeline company in challenging the appraisal of crude oil shipped on its lines.

Since joining Perdue & Kidd, L.L.P, Ben has appeared on all of the major news stations to discuss the Stanford Financial Group fraud on its investors.   Ben is currently representing investors victimized by the Stanford Financial Group fraud.  The Houston Chronicle has also reported on Ben's representation of clients victimized by the Stanford fraud. 

As a result of his work, Ben was selected by his peers as a Texas Rising Star in Energy & Natural Resources in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Ben is a member of the Texas Bar Foundation, Texas Trial Lawyers’ Association, Houston Bar Association,  Houston Trial Lawyers’ Association and the First Judicial District Bar Association. 

Ben is co-author of The Discovery Rule Ten Years After HECI v. Neel - Does it Apply to Oil & Gas Claims?, published in the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section Report, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Sept. 2009), and is a regular speaker on oil and gas topics.