Mark Walraven is a trial lawyer who primarily assists mineral owners with oil & gas negotiations, leasing, sales and litigation. Mark negotiates oil & gas leases and sales agreements to obtain the best possible terms for Oklahoma mineral owners. In the last three years alone, Mark and the G&W Oil & Gas Team has successfully negotiated over 1800 leases and mineral sales, obtaining over $120 million in lease bonuses and sales proceeds for Oklahoma mineral owners. Mark also assists clients in reviewing and negotiating lease assignments, division orders, royalty payment issues, and curing defects in title.
On the litigation side, Mark focuses primarily on issues related to oil & gas lease cancellation and royalty deductions. In lease cancellation cases, Mark assists royalty owners with releasing minerals held by non-productive wells. In royalty deduction cases, Mark reviews royalty owner payments to ensure that those payments are made in accordance with the oil & gas lease, and when they are not, to pursue the recovery of royalty deductions taken in violation of the lease.
Mark was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, and attended undergraduate school at the University of Texas in Austin. After graduating from UT in 2002, Mark enlisted in the United States Army and served in the airborne infantry. He later commissioned as an officer and served in the armored scouts, including a combat tour in Iraq as a Scout Platoon Leader. After the Army, Mark attended law school at Baylor University in Waco, where he met the love of his life, Chaille Graft. Mark and Chaille were married in 2011 and moved to Clinton, Oklahoma to practice with Chaille’s father, C.B. Graft, in 2012. Mark and Chaille have three boys, Jackson, Christian and Elias. In his spare time Mark enjoys serving at Life Church in Edmond, scuba diving, playing fantasy football, and doing anything outside with his family.
