Denney Wright
Exxon Mobil Corporation
Denney Wright was appointed a Professor of Practice at the University of Houston Law Center in 2017, having retired from Exxon Mobil Corporation in November 2016 with over forty-two years of service. In his role as a Professor of Practice, Mr. Wright is teaching Oil and Gas Tax and International Petroleum Transactions. He is also organizing and implementing continuing education in the tax and energy areas supporting various degree-granting programs and CLE programs at the Law Center. A new permanent program rolled out in 2019 is the University of Houston Law Center Denney L. Wright International Energy Tax Conference, an annual international energy tax symposium that will focus on international energy tax issues of note. The third annual conference was held virtually and attracted over 300 participants with speakers from six countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the UK and the US. Mr. Wright also serves as a faculty advisor to the Houston Business and Tax Law Journal and to the UHLC Student Chapter of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators.
Mr. Wright comes to the Law Center with significant experience in an energy tax practice. He started initially at Exxon Mobil Corporation in the Controller’s Department but served most of his career in the Tax Department as a tax accountant and a tax lawyer. Mr. Wright served in many positions over the years, primarily in the United States but also in the United Kingdom. In his final assignment with ExxonMobil, Mr. Wright was Senior Tax Counsel - Global Training and Development, where he oversaw worldwide U.S. tax training and development for Exxon Mobil Corporation tax personnel.
Mr. Wright has taught Oil and Gas Taxation for over twenty years as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center and internally at Exxon Mobil Corporation. Over the past ten years he has also taught Oil and Gas Taxation as an Adjunct Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, the University of Texas School of Law and Southern
Methodist University School of Law. Mr. Wright also serves as a lecturer on international tax issues in the University of Calgary Law School International Energy Law Study Abroad Program held at the London School of Economics, planned as an annual program in August of each year in London.
Mr. Wright is a member of the Texas Bar, a member of the American Bar Association and has been a participant in many oil and gas industry groups throughout us long career. Mr. Wright serves on the Parker Fielder Oil & Gas Tax Conference Advisory Committee and has appeared as a panelist at the Parker Fielder Tax Conference as well as numerous other conferences and symposiums addressing oil and gas tax issues during his ExxonMobil career and now as a Professor of Practice at UHLC. Mr. Wright is a member of the Advisory Board of the Texas Federal Tax Institute and serves on the Education Board of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. Mr. Wright published “Understanding the Windfall Profits Tax Act” in the Petroleum Landman in 1980 and Co-Chaired the United States/China Oil and Gas Tax Joint Government/Industry Biennial Conference in Beijing, China in 1998. Mr. Wright published an oil and gas tax casebook for use in law school and graduate business school classes – Oil and Gas Taxation: A Comprehensive Study -- published by CCH Wolters Kluwer(November, 2019). Mr. Wright is now also a co-author of the Bloomberg BNA Tax Management Portfolio (No. 512-2d) on energy titled Tax Incentives for Production and Conservation of Energy and Natural Resources which is updated annually. Mr. Wright received the Parker Fielder Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 in recognition of his long-standing energy tax practice and teaching
Mr. Wright is married, has three children, three grandchildren and is active in his church as well as in scouting and community service activities.
Publications
Denney L. Wright, Oil and Gas Taxation: A Comprehensive Study, CCH Wolters Kluwer, 1st Ed. November, 2019
Denney L. Wright, 512-2d T.M., Tax Incentives for Production and Conservation of Energy and Natural Resources, Bloomberg BNA, 2020
Denney L. Wright, Understanding the Windfall Profits Tax Act, PETROLEUM LANDMAN (1980
Degrees
LLM in Tax, University of Houston (May, 1993)
JD, South Texas College of Law (May, 1978
BBA in Accounting, Texas Tech University (May, 1974)
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