J. Thomas Lane

Tom Lane is a partner in the Charleston, West Virginia office of Bowles Rice and is licensed to practice law in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. He practices primarily in the areas of natural resources, coal, oil and gas, commercial real estate, zoning and land development This practice ranges from complex transactions of mineral property and companies to complex litigation of natural resource issues. He also engages in lobbying and government relations, particularly on issues affecting the mineral industry.

As the former Robert T. Donley Adjunct Professor of Law at the West Virginia University College of Law, Mr. Lane taught a course in Coal, Oil and Gas Law (1986-2005). He compiled a teaching text on Coal, Oil and Gas and has published numerous articles, including Rights-of-Way and Easements in Mineral Development; Maintaining Oil and Gas Leases in Distressed Markets; West Virginia Ad Valorem Property Taxes; Fire in the Hole to Longwall Shears, Old Law Applied to New Technology; Accounting for Cotenants, Trustees, Lessees, Trespassers and the Like; and Carbon Sequestration: Critical Property Rights and Legal Liabilities – Real Impediments or Red Herrings?

Mr. Lane is President of the Charleston City Council where he has been an elected member since 1987. He serves on the key committees of Council, is involved in various special projects from homeless shelters to public safety and has organized and oversees task forces to carry out a City plan on comprehensive improvements. He is active in a variety of church, civic and charitable endeavors.

He is trustee and past president of the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation and past president and chairman of the Executive Council of The West Virginia Bar Association. He is also the chairman of the Charleston Land Trust.

An owner of a land development company, Mr. Lane is involved in land development, construction and rental.

He received his bachelor of arts degree in 1968 from Washington & Jefferson College and his law degree in 1973 from West Virginia University. He served in the United States Army (1969-1971), and was a Law Clerk to the Honorable John A. Field Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1974-1975). He is a member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.

Since 1989, Mr. Lane has been listed in “The Best Lawyers in America” by Woodward/White, Inc.; he has an AV rating with Martindale-Hubbell; and he is listed in Chambers USA “America’s Leading Business Lawyers.” In 2006, he was awarded the annual McClaugherty Award by the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation for distinguished service to the natural resource profession.

In 2009, he was recognized by West Virginia Super Lawyers as one of “West Virginia Top 10 Super Lawyers” and he was selected as The Best Lawyers in America’s 2010 Real Estate Lawyer in the southern West Virginia region. He was named Best Lawyers’ Oil and Gas Law Lawyer of the Year in the southern West Virginia region. He was recognized by the 2013 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business among “Leaders in their Field” for Real Estate Law.