J. Howard Marshall - Careers

Careers

Upon graduation he served from 1931 to 1933 as an Assistant Dean at Yale Law School and his teaching schedule during these years has been definitively documented. At the same time, he was producing scholarship as a member of the influential legal realist school of thought, working with future Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas on an article entitled A Factual Study of Bankruptcy Administration and Some Suggestions. However, his most influential works, done with Norman Meyers, were two articles entitled Legal Planning of Petroleum Production. These pioneering studies offered an alternative to the then-current practices of controlled production among the oil industry, which were leading to dramatic boom/bust cycles, and gained the interest of the government, especially since the legal minds behind the New Deal were staunch legal realists.

In 1933, he left Yale to become the Assistant Solicitor at the Department of Interior under Harold L. Ickes. During his first tour at Interior, he authored the Connally Hot Oil Act of 1935 in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA). Specifically, it revived the portion of the original legislation that regulated the flow of oil between states. Ostensibly enacted to protect the industry from "contraband oil" in order to stabilize falling prices.

In 1935, he left government service to become the special counsel to the president (Kenneth R. Kingsbury) of Standard Oil of California (now Chevron) in San Francisco, and began his long career as an oilman. Another two years later he became a partner at the firm Pillsbury Madison Sutro (now known as Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman), which was the company's outside counsel. It was at Standard Oil of California that he began a life long business association and friendship with his mentor Ralph K. Davies. In 1942, he was called back to Washington, D.C. during the war as Solicitor of the Petroleum Administration for War, helping develop America's energy policy during the war, and later as a member of the Committee on Reparations. In 1944, after developing a relationship with Paul Blazier, he became President of Ashland Oil and Refining Co. (now Marathon Oil). Later positions included Executive Vice President at Signal Oil & Gas under Samuel B. Mosher, President of Union Texas Petroleum and Executive Vice President of Allied Signal (all now Honeywell, Union Texas Petroleum Holdings was later sold by Allied Signal to ARCO and merged into BP),until his semi-retirement in 1969.

Marshall remained active in the energy industry through many personal endeavors with Great Northern Oil Company, Koch Industries, Coastal Corp (now El Paso Corporation), Independent Refinery, International Oil and Gas, various exploration syndicates and culminating in 1984, when he founded Marshall Petroleum. Throughout many of his endeavors, Marshall turned most of his business associations into friendships; including J.R. Parten, Fred Koch and his sons, Oscar Wyatt and E.O. Buck.