Nicholas P. Laurent

Nicholas P. Laurent joined Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, PLLC in 2015 and exclusively represents landowners in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, land use, and real property transactions and litigation. He has represented landowners in all phases of the condemnation process, including pre-suit negotiations, in special commissioner hearings, before state and federal trial courts, and on appeal before Texas intermediate appellate courts and the Supreme Court of Texas. His clients range from individual landowners to publicly traded Fortune 500 companies.Mr. Laurent’s eminent domain practice covers all of Texas including El Paso, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, the Panhandle, and the Rio Grande Valley, in addition to Oklahoma, North Dakota, Virginia, Georgia, and Colorado. He has represented landowners in eminent domain matters pursued by the federal, state, county and city governments, regional mobility and toll road authorities, oil/gas pipeline companies, and utility providers. His broad experience covers a variety of real property takings that range from border wall takings to billboard leases.In addition to handling statutory eminent domain matters, Mr. Laurent has litigated the breadth and scope of utility easements on behalf of landowners in injunction proceedings following upgrades and other projects and has pursued inverse condemnation claims on behalf of landowners as well as claims under the federal “Big” Tucker Act and the Texas Tort Claims Act. He also represents landowners in contested cases on power line routing before the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the State Office of Administrative Hearings.Prior to joining Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, Mr. Laurent was a partner with McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP where he represented clients in state and federal appellate courts and presented oral arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans and the Texas Third Court of Appeals at Austin.Mr. Laurent graduated with a B.B.A. in Finance from Southern Methodist University in 2005. He graduated with honors from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2008 where he served on the Energy Law Journal and was awarded the Order of the Curule Chair, the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation Joe Rudd Scholarship, and the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation Scholarship.Mr. Laurent was selected as a top attorney in Super Lawyers in 2021 and 2023 and was named as one of the top eminent domain lawyers inAustin Monthlyin 2022 and 2023. He is a member of the State Bars of Texas and North Dakota and has been admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eighth Circuits, the Federal Court of Claims, and the U.S. District Courts for the Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Districts of Texas. He has been appointed Vice-Chair of the Land Use and Environmental Group of the American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law for the 2022-2023 term. He is also a member of the Real Estate Council of Austin and the Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.