Below is a testimonial from David I. Mansbery, President of Duck Creek Energy, Inc.
Tell me about Duck Creek Energy, Inc.
We are an oil & gas development company in Eastern Ohio, and we also own interests in Oklahoma and Texas. We cover the full spectrum from “prospect to pipeline”— meaning from when we first have an idea of the potential to drill in an area, to predrilling and geologic evaluation, to lease acquisitions, permitting, drilling of the wells, completion of the wells, and on to the pipeline and connecting to gas markets and opportunities for selling the gas itself.
How did your relationship with Benesch begin?
I started working with Benesch in 2006. I call myself a serial entrepreneur. My son, David Mansbery, Jr., is an attorney at Benesch in the Real Estate Practice Group, and I got started with Benesch to sell the intellectual property and assets of my former company, TMIO, LLC, which invented the Connect IO Oven. Benesch did a wonderful job with that sale, and has been working with me on Duck Creek Energy business since 2008. We have a wide range of needs—real estate, litigation, general business—so I work with attorneys in all those disciplines. They handle everything from oil & gas law to corporate matters to working on leases (general business and oil & gas), intellectual property matters and litigation as needed.
What do you like about your relationship with Benesch?
I value their high level of professionalism and their ability to work with us in solving problems, whether the normal everyday issues that arise in negotiations of a lease or their ability to come up with more complex legal solutions as necessary.
They have a very solid group of people that understand how to get to the core of an issue and then develop the strategies necessary to formulate a resolution. They have a good understanding of the law and the ability to apply the law when a particular issue arises.
Have you worked with other law firms before Benesch?
Absolutely, yes. But I choose to work with Benesch now because of their great diversity in being able to handle many of the types of issues that an entrepreneur like me seems to present to them. That’s important. I appreciate being able to have one-stop shopping for a variety of issues that come up in the business world. They even helped with incorporating my baseball business—the Baseball Batting Cages in Brecksville.
To quote my son when I come to them with a new request: “Oh boy…what now?” But Benesch never fails to handle it.