[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_4″ last=”no” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_imageframe lightbox=”no” lightbox_image=”” style_type=”none” hover_type=”none” bordercolor=”” bordersize=”0px” borderradius=”0″ stylecolor=”” align=”none” link=”” linktarget=”_self” animation_type=”0″ animation_direction=”down” animation_speed=”0.1″ hide_on_mobile=”no” class=”” id=””] 
[/fusion_imageframe][/fusion_builder_column][fusion_builder_column type=”3_4″ last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]By Mark Curriden
Fort Worth (Oct. 6) – For six decades, legendary oil and gas lawyer Dee Kelly was involved in the biggest deals and the most important lawsuits in Tarrant County.
He was the chief legal adviser for the Bass family, American Airlines, the Texas Rangers, private equity firm TPG Capital, Kimbell Oil Company, Moncrief Oil and boot manufacturer John Justin.
Kelly founded the law firm Kelly, Hart & Hallman, which is the largest firm in Fort Worth. And he was a key advocate for American Airlines and the City of Fort Worth in various legal battles against the City of Dallas and Southwest Airlines over the operation of Love Field and enforcement of the Wright Amendment.
Simply put, Dee Kelly was the most influential business and political leaders in the history of Fort Worth. Sadly, he passed away Oct. 2. He was 86.
“I have loved every minute of being a lawyer and have been honored to work with some extraordinary business and political leaders,” Kelly told The Texas Lawbook in an interview in late September. “I practiced both transactional law and litigation. No lawyers today do both. Litigation was always my favorite.”
Kelly was fiercely loyal to his clients and they were loyal to him.
“Dee was a one man army, a force of nature and a brilliant legal strategist,” said former American Airlines General Counsel Gary Kennedy. “If the airline was in a legal pinch and I needed advice of any kind, not just legal, or help reading the tea leaves of local politics, law firms and judges, he was the person to contact.”
Dee J. Kelly was born in 1929 in Bonham, Texas. His father sold insurance. His mother worked in a cotton mill.
Kelly attended the night law school program at George Washington University and worked during the day as a clerk for U. S. Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, a fellow Texan he met while working for his high school newspaper.
He graduated from George Washington in 1954 and returned to North Texas to practice law, where he joined the Texas Railroad Commission as a legal examiner in the oil and gas division.
Fourteen months later, Kelly parlayed his newfound experience and knowledge of oil and gas into a lawyer position at the Cantey Hanger law firm in Fort Worth and later became general counsel of Moncrief Oil.
He opened his own law practice in 1964, where he landed his first big case as a lead lawyer. He represented the daughter of oilman William Fleming in a battle over her father’s estate.
“There was a lot of money at stake and the estate included oil and gas properties and a couple ranches,” Kelly said in the recent interview. “My client, Mary Fleming Walsh, prevailed after two years of litigation and she received nearly all of her father’s estate.
“At the time, I didn’t know the real value of the settlement, but I knew it was big because my client bought a $10 million life insurance policy on me in case I did not survive the trial,” he said. “There were times during that case where I thought she might just collect on that policy.”
Kimbell Oil Company hired Kelly to represent it in a conflict with Rio Grande Valley Gas Co. Kimbell had drilled several gas wells, but Rio Grande refused to connect the wells to its pipeline system.
He convinced the state Railroad Commission to order the pipeline to connect to all the wells in the field. When a Travis County district judge reversed the Railroad Commission, Kelly successfully appealed to the Texas Supreme Court, which handed a complete victory to his client.
Along the way, Kelly met Sid Bass, president of Bass Brothers Enterprises. By the mid-1970s, Kelly spent hundreds of hours a month doing legal work on oil and gas projects for the Bass brothers.
On March 1, 1979, Kelly Hart opened its doors. The firm now has more than 130 lawyers in Fort Worth, Austin and Houston.
“My dad grew to love Fort Worth and he had his hand in virtually everything that went on here,” Dee Kelly Jr. said in an interview Sunday. “But he was a lawyer first. He loved the art and craft of practicing law.”
“Dee was a fast talker and used Texas euphemisms that perfectly fit every situation and often kept me smiling,” Kennedy said. “He was the consummate gentleman and a generous soul.”[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]