Michael R. Perri
Managing Partner
Email: mperri@perridunn.com
Direct: (405) 724-8545
Location: Oklahoma City
Michael R. Perri is a founding Member and Co-Manager of Perri Dunn PLLC established in 2019 with long-time colleagues Jason Dunn and Socorro Adams Dooley.
Mike has over 35 years’ experience in assisting clients find solutions to their legal and business issues. He represents and advises both public and privately held companies, and individuals, in a broad range of commercial litigation matters and business transactions, with an emphasis on matters involving energy, oil and gas, public utility, tort and probate law.
Mike’s energy experience includes prosecuting and defending hundreds of claims over thousands of gas purchase agreements involving a wide range of contract and statutory construction issues. These disputes include the enforcement of pricing provisions; take provisions; take-or-pay provisions; dedication clauses; term provisions; drainage provisions; ratable take requirements; gas quality specification clauses; favored nations clauses; evergreen provisions; back-in and reversionary interests; “commercial well” and “paying quantities” clauses; and “best efforts” clauses.
He has also successfully defended and prosecuted complex oil and gas litigation claims involving drainage; royalties and accounting for post-production costs; propriety of intra-company sales; lease termination and title disputes; determination of payout; trade secrets disputes; gas balancing and oversold reserves disputes; gas pipeline transportation, compression and dehydration charges; right of first refusal claims; and breach of warranty and products liability relating to down-hole failure cases.
In addition to his litigation practice, Mike has extensive experience in counseling clients in business transactions including negotiating and drafting mineral and SWD leases, purchase and sale agreements and associated transaction closing documents. He also represents clients in contested and uncontested probate matters. Mike has also testified multiple times as an expert in attorney fee disputes.
Mike also appreciates his counsel to the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Before establishing Perri Dunn PLLC in 2019, Mike practiced law with two other Oklahoma City law firms.
Born in New York City in 1961, Mike was raised with his two brothers and three sisters primarily in Seaford, Delaware, and Oklahoma City. After graduating from John Carroll High School in 1979 in Birmingham, Alabama, Mike graduated from Notre Dame in 1983 and the University of Oklahoma Law School in 1986, becoming one of the few people he knows who supports both the Irish and the Sooners. Since 2018, Mike has been actively involved in the management of a closely held family business that distributes valves and chemical injection pumps for use in the oil and gas industry. He enjoys high school and college sports, the Oklahoma City Thunder, swimming, cooking, and several hobbies, including collecting coins, sports cards, autographs, Sports Illustrated Magazines, game programs and tickets, and newspaper articles.
- Class Actions and Collective Actions
- Commercial Litigation and Trial Practice
- Complex Torts
- Energy, Oil & Gas
- Environmental Law
- Probate and Trust Disputes
- Public Utilities
- University of Oklahoma (J.D., 1986)
- University of Notre Dame (B.B.A, with Honors, 1983)
- 1986, Oklahoma
- 1986, United States District Court, Western and Northern Districts of Oklahoma
- 1986, United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
- 2006, United States District Court, Nebraska
- 2007, United States District Court, Southern District of New York
- 2015, United States District Court, Eastern District of Oklahoma
- 2018, United States District Court, Western District of Louisiana
- 2020, United States Tax Court
- Oklahoma County Bar Association
- Oklahoma Bar Association (Member – Litigation, Environmental and Mineral Law Sections) American Bar Association (Member – Environment, Energy & Resources, Litigation and Public Utility Law Sections)
- Serves as counsel for a national manufacturer of computerized pitching and batting machines based in Texas and Louisiana.
- Serves as Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri counsel for a national equipment finance company based in California.
- Successfully defended multiple out of state family members in a contested probate over ownership of Oklahoma mineral interests.
- Successfully defended a personal representative in a disputed probate from claims brought by a family member and heir.
- Successfully defended an oil and gas service company against breach of contract and business tort claims.
- Successfully defended an oil and gas service company against claims involving misappropriation of trade secrets.
- Consulted with and successfully defended a utility client in the administration of its gas supply program, which ultimately lead to savings in the program in excess of $100 million dollars.
- Defended a major Oklahoma gas purchaser against claims that a newly completed well was dedicated to interstate commerce and, therefore, dedicated to an existing gas purchase and sales agreement, saving the client $18 million on the initial well and tens of millions of dollars more on the additional wells contemplated in the unit.
- Prosecuted a series of cases against a number of gas gathering companies that had acquired gas supplies outside of the dedicated acreage under existing gas supply contracts, eventually saving the client millions of dollars from the purchase of such undedicated gas.
- Successfully represented a major Oklahoma utility in the defense of its franchise rights in several citizen and taxpayer lawsuits.
- Advised and successfully represented a major Oklahoma utility, both as plaintiff and as defendant, in connection with numerous service territory infringement claims filed by or against competing utilities or service providers.
- Successfully defended a client against claims totaling $32 million alleging tortious breach of dozens of natural gas sales agreements, bad faith administration of such contracts, fraud, and punitive damages.
- Defended a large Oklahoma company against a $12 million drainage claim that was litigated at summary judgment, then on appeal and culminated in a successful verdict at trial.
- Successfully defended an importer of Romanian tubular products, including casing, in two separate multi-million dollar down-hole failure cases.
- Successfully defended an owner of an assisted living facility from multiple negligence lawsuits.
- Obtained appellate reversal of State of Oklahoma sales and use tax assessments for a manufacturer of railroad ballast.
- Represented an Oklahoma oil and gas producer in its acquisition of assets in the mid-continent, Haynesville and Barnett shale plays from the bankrupt estate of another producer.
- Represented an Oklahoma expanded metals manufacturer in the sale of its Georgia facilities.
- Successfully defended an Oklahoma business in the oil and gas industry from multiple wrongful employee termination claims.
- Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™
- Best Lawyers: Energy Law (2010-2019)
- Best Lawyers: Commercial Litigation; Natural Resources Law; Oil and Gas Law (2013-2019) Oklahoma Super Lawyers (2010-2018) Recognized as Best Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year” in OKC – Natural Resources Law (2019)
- Christ the King Catholic Church Member (1986-present)
- Notre Dame Club of Oklahoma City (2008 – present); President (2010 – 2016)
- O’Connor Family Foundation Public Support Organization Director (2017-present)
- Oklahoma Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame Board Member (1997-2010)
- Trinity School Board Member (2011-present); Vice-President (2016-present)
- Schoenhals v. PSR Investors, Inc., 299 P.3d 874 (2013 OK CIV APP 27)
- Wilson v. Harlow, 860 P.2d 793 (1993 OK 98)
- Dearing v. State ex rel. Com’rs of Land Office, 808 P.2d 661 (1991 OK 6)
- McKee Products, Inc. v. State ex rel. Oklahoma Tax Com’n, 805 P.2d 110 (1989 OK CIV APP 83)
