CHARLESTON – A Charleston attorney has received a prestigious award from the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation.
Sharon O. Flanery of Steptoe & Johnson, has been awarded the EMLF’s 2017 John McClaugherty Award. According to the EMLF’s website, the award “honors an EMLF Member who exemplifies a continuing involvement and commitment to the EMLF, the legal profession, and the energy and natural resources industry.” It is recognized as the foundation’s highest honor.
In her position as chair of Steptoe & Johnson’s Energy and Natural Resources Department, Flanery manages more than 200 people in 13 offices across six states.
According to her profile on the firm’s website, she currently “leads teams responsible for asset and stock transactions, lease transactions, and property due diligence projects involving over 3,000,000 gross acres” and in the past has “led [a] team drafting a multi-million dollar supply agreement for the production and sale of biomass to an electric generating plant… [and] drafted legislation on behalf of a Fortune 500 energy client that clarified the requirements for notification of landowners in connection with coalbed methane development.”
The firm’s press release about the award also pointed out that “Flanery has been heavily involved in growing Steptoe & Johnson’s presence in the Marcellus and Utica shale regions and its expansion into the Houston and Denver energy regions.”
In addition to her legal background, Flanery has worked in the industry as a petroleum engineer for Aramco in Saudi Arabia as well as several other major energy producers. This has allowed her to bring practical, real-world experience to her legal career.
The John McClaugherty Award is not Flanery’s first honor. According to the firm’s press release, “She has been named among The Best Lawyers in America for 2017 and earned top-tier ranking from Chambers USA America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. She has also been named a Female Powerbroker by legal news source Law360, a BTI Consulting Client Service All-Star, a YWCA Woman of Achievement, and is a past West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival Italian-American Woman of the Year recipient.”
The John McClaugherty Award is chosen by a committee made up of all previous recipients.
Flanery declined to be interviewed for this article.