Faculty
UH LAW CENTER ADJUNCT FACULTY
Frank Devlin
Francis J. Devlin is currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas, and. practices in the areas of antitrust, franchise, advertising and promotions, government investigations, environmental law, corporate law, legislation, alternative fuels, and general commercial law, with a concentration in the area of energy law. He teaches Franchise and Distribution, Sales and Leasing (UCC Articles 2 and 2A), and Gasoline: A Legal History.
Formerly senior counsel with Exxon Mobil Corporation, Frank represented them in numerous investigations concerning fuels pricing and quality at the federal, state, and local levels. He was the principal antitrust counsel for the domestic fuels marketing business and was responsible for more than a dozen pre-merger notifications filed with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), none of which resulted in the issuance of a Second Request. He coordinated Exxon's response to the Second Request issued by the FTC in connection with the merger of Exxon and Mobil. From 1996 through 1999, he was the coordinator of Exxon's General Commercial Practice Group, responsible for all domestic antitrust advice, together with responsibility for Exxon's domestic marketing and crude oil and products supply operations.
Mr. Devlin has also been active in the legislative area. Among other matters, he was the principal industry negotiator with respect to the 1994 amendments to the federal Petroleum Marketing Practices Act.
He is a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has spoken at numerous ABA and other seminars on legislative developments, antitrust, and environmental issues. He is a member of the ABA's sections on Antitrust Law and Environment, Energy and Resources, of which he is a vice-chairman of the Petroleum Marketing Committee. He is also a member of the Forum on Franchising, the Section on Business Law, and the Section on Alternative Dispute Resolution.
During his 30-year career with Standard Oil, Exxon and Exxon Mobil, Mr. Devlin had responsibility, among others, for the original development of its hazard communications programs, the financing of Exxon's interest in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (including one of the few industrial corporation "Dutch auctions" of debt securities), shareholder relations, public affairs, corporate governance, and price controls during the Carter administration.
He has been active in the American Petroleum Institute (API), being the founding chairman of the Subcommittee on Marketing Law of the API Committee on Law and has served as the attorney advisor of the API Marketing Committee.
Admitted to practice in Texas and New York and before the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth and Eleventh Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals, Mr. Devlin is a Fellow of the College of the State Bar of Texas. He has been listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in the South and Southwest, as well as other biographical publications.
Mr. Devlin is a 1967 graduate of Fordham University School of Law, where he was articles editor of the Fordham Law Review and a 1964 magna cum laude graduate of Providence College, where he was editor-in-chief of The Cowl. His editorial on the death of President Kennedy was read into the Congressional Record.