Overview
Bryan Farris creatively and strategically guides businesses through a wide range of corporate transactions and associated decision-making with a focus on advising startups, new ventures, and emerging companies across both national and international legal landscapes. In addition, he is a recognized leader in the oil and gas space, with extensive experience managing oil and gas transactions, including mergers and acquisitions of oil and gas properties; capital formation, financing, and securities, including private offerings and syndications; mineral rights valuations; and general industry negotiation, mediation, and litigation.
In his corporate transactions practice, Bryan regularly serves as lead counsel for large-scale residential, industrial, and commercial energy and real estate projects. His specific experience includes development and financing, for-profit and nonprofit business entity formation, mergers and acquisitions, and capital financing, including securities and nonprofit fundraising.
Bolstered by a long, diverse track record in oil and gas, Bryan has notably served as a founder, CEO, and general counsel for licensed oil and gas operators in Texas and Wyoming. In these intersecting roles, he performed complex legal and technical tasks, including due diligence and asset acquisition; was responsible for all financing, hedging transactions, legal matters, business development, property acquisitions, land and mineral rights and operations contracting; managed land acquisitions in East Texas, the Gulf Coast, and the Rockies; and oversaw all staff and contract operations.
As a business and community innovator willing to take on highly complex legal matters, Bryan prioritizes proactive, cutting-edge solutions rooted in both short- and long-term client objectives. As a past principal of multiple businesses involved in substantial transactions, including lucrative exits, he leverages firsthand business knowledge to deliver results with optimal financial and operational outcomes.
Bryan is notably fluent in Italian.
Credentials
Education
- Brigham Young University – J. Reuben Clark School of Law, 1999 (J.D.)
- Utah State University, 1996 (B.A.), with honors
- Served as an expert witness in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Trans-Western Petroleum, Inc. v. U.S. Gypsum Co.
- Manila Elementary School (Pleasant Grove, Utah), School Community Council
- Timpanogos Times, Sportswriter
- SCERA Center for the Arts, Board of Advisors
- Provo City Task Force: City Library Bond Committee; Students for Local Involvement, Founder
- American Association of Professional Landmen
- Utah Association of Professional Landmen
- “Educational Choice: School Vouchers after Jackson v. Benson, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program,” B.Y.U. Education & Law Journal, Summer 1999