Kenneth J. Witzel
Top rated Energy & Natural Resources attorney in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania
Ozdinec & Witzel, LLC
Practice areas: Energy & Natural Resources, Business Litigation; view more
Licensed in Pennsylvania since: 1998
Education: Pennsylvania State University The Dickinson School of Law
Selected to Super Lawyers: 2026 Call today:
725-238-3932
Free Consultation Ozdinec & Witzel, LLC
20399 Route 19Suite 206
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 Visit website
Details 
From Ozdinec & Witzel, LLC, in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, Kenneth J. Witzel is a distinguished practitioner in the Appalachian Basin, focusing on oil and gas law, and energy and resources law. With decades of experience navigating the complexities of the energy sector, he provides authoritative counsel on matters involving mineral rights, regulatory compliance and high-stakes energy litigation. His practice is defined by a deep technical understanding of the industry and a commitment to achieving strategic objectives for his clients in a rapidly evolving legal landscape.
Mr. Witzel’s reputation for excellence is backed by a formidable academic and professional record. He earned his B.A. degree in English from The University of Utah in 1995 before attending The Dickinson School of Law at Pennsylvania State University. During his time at Dickinson Law, he served as the Articles Editor for the Dickinson Law Review and graduated with his Juris Doctor in 1998.
As a leader in the legal community, Mr. Witzel served as President of the W. Edward Sell American Inn of Court from 2012 to 2014, and his commitment to maintaining high standards of the profession was later recognized when he received the organization’s Eric W. Springer Professionalism Award. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s Roster of Arbitrators and is also an active participant in the Hay-Sell American Inn of Court and the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.
Licensed to practice in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Mr. Witzel is admitted to practice law before an extensive array of federal courts, including the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Additionally, he is admitted to the United States Courts of Appeals for the 3rd and 4th Circuits, positioning him as a premier advocate for complex multijurisdictional energy disputes.
Practice areas
Energy & Natural Resources, Business LitigationFocus areas
Energy Law, Natural Resources Law
- 70% Energy & Natural Resources
- 30% Business Litigation
First Admitted: 1998, Pennsylvania
Professional Webpage: https://ozwitz.com/kenneth-witzel
Bar / Professional Activity
- Pennsylvania
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida
- United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia
- United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- West Virginia
Verdicts / Settlements (Case Results)
- Secured dismissal of quiet title action against owner of coal mine on preliminary objections.
- Successfully represented privately held coal company in litigation against major utility which prematurely terminated coal supply agreement for one of its power plants.
- Successfully represented privately held oil and gas/coal owner in proceedings brought against the estate of former business partner.
- Successfully represented publicly traded natural gas producer in proceedings concerning oil and gas lease with a value to client in excess of $50 million.
- Obtained summary judgment from trial court in favor of clients/owners of 16,000-acre coal mine property as to claims raised by individual who claimed ownership of the property under an alleged settlement agreement. Affirmed on appeal.
- Successfully represented publicly traded natural gas producer in ligation brought by landowners who owned “oil” but not “gas” underlying their property and contended that natural gas producer was wrongfully producing “oil” by means of a horizontal Marcellus Shale well that traversed the property.
- Successfully represented publicly traded natural gas producer in arbitration proceedings initiated by another producer seeking approximately $5 million in damages for claims involving alleged breaches of drilling commitments under a farmout agreement.
- Successfully represented publicly traded natural gas producer and a former landman-employee against claims brought by landowner/lessor; all claims against former employee dismissed, with prejudice, and all claims against natural gas producer dismissed due to arbitration provision. Holmes v. Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, Civil Action No. 5:11CV123, 2012 WL 3647674 (N.D. W.Va. Aug. 23, 2012)
- Obtained preliminary injunction on behalf of a privately held oil and gas company to prevent landowner/lessor from removing production-related equipment from property and declaring oil and gas lease to be invalid. Affirmed on appeal.
- Obtained dismissal of all claims (including claims for fraudulent inducement, improper notarization, injunction, declaratory judgment) brought by oil and gas lessors against publicly traded natural gas producer. Dwyer v. Range Resources—Appalachia, LLC, Civil Action No. 5:14CV21, 2014 WL 1648272 (N.D. W. Va. Apr. 24, 2014).
- Obtained unanimous ruling by panel of three arbitrators (one of whom was appointed by the claimant) in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer on claims brought by a landowner/lessor who sought to compel the producer/lessee to exercise its option to extend oil and gas lease’s primary term for an additional five years.
- Obtained AAA arbitration award in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer on trespass claims brought by a landowner/lessor under a temporary water storage and staging lease agreement. Arbitrator awarded attorney’s fees and costs to natural gas producer.
- Successfully represented publicly-traded natural gas producer in litigation brought by overriding royalty interest owner who claimed the producer was not entitled to deduct post-production costs from the overriding royalties.
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer against oil and gas lessors who sought a judicial declaration that their oil and gas lease was invalid as to the shale gas. Affirmed on appeal.
- Successfully represented publicly traded natural gas producer in litigation involving nine separate cases pertaining to a total of 17 separate oil and gas leases and 1,600 acres, in which the lessors asserted numerous claims against the producer including fraud, slander of title, improper notarization, and trespass.
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer on claims by oil and gas lessors that the lessees’ assignments of their leases were improper under the terms of the oil and gas leases. Stricklin v. Fortuna Energy, Inc., Civil Action No. 5:12CV8, 2014 WL 2619587 (N.D. W.Va. Jun. 12, 2014).
- Obtained summary judgment in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer on claims by the lessors under three oil and gas leases that their leases terminated at the end of their primary terms where the producer did not exercise its option to extend the leases while they were in their primary term and the lessors did not afford the producer the requisite notice and opportunity to cure specified in the leases.
- Obtained federal court jury verdict in favor of publicly traded natural gas producer on claims brought by landowner/lessor who alleged that producer had tortiously interfered with his employment; and secured judgment in favor of producer following bench trial on claims by the landowner/lessor under a “dual purpose” oil and gas lease that the production rights under the lease had terminated because the lease had only been used for storage. Mason v. Range Resources—Appalachia, LLC, 120 F.Supp.3d 425 (W.D. Pa. 2015).
- Obtained arbitration award in favor of non-operator in breach of contract case in which an operator under a terminated Joint Operating Agreement sought damages in excess of $1.25 million for remediation efforts voluntarily undertaken on a previously plugged well. Arbitration panel awarded attorney’s fees and costs to the non-operator.
Scholarly Lectures / Writings
- “Medtronic, Inc. v. Lohr and the Power of Preemption: A Pennsylvania Guide to the Preemption of Common Law Tort Claims by the Medical Device Amendment of 1976,” 102 Dickinson Law Review 865, 1998
- Co-author, “Public Employees, Expert Testimony and the First Amendment, First Amendment & Media Litigation,” Winter 2004, Vol. 9, No. 2, at 15
- Co-author, “Flat-rate Royalty Leases and Section 34 of the Oil and Gas Lease Act,” the PIOGA Press, February 2014
- Author, ” One to Keep a Close Eye On – Bradford County Permits the Pennsylvania Attorney General to Proceed with Novel Claims Against Two Oil and Gas Operators “, The Energy Law Advisor, March 2018
- Co-author, “What Do You Mean We Can’t Do That? Antitrust Law Implications for Upstream Joint Development Arrangements”, 39 Energy & Min. L. Inst. § 8 (2018)
- Moderator and panelist, “Quandaries Involving Apportionment,” Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, 46th Annual Institute, June 10, 2025
- Co-author, “The Intersection of Gas and Coal in Pennsylvania”, The Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly, July 2018
- Co-author, “Beware the Ides of March – Pa. Appellate Court Allows AG to Pursue UTPCPL Claims Against Oil and Gas Operators”, The Energy Law Advisor, Vol. 13, No. 3 – August 2019
- Author, “Pennsylvania’s New Revised Statutory Arbitration Act: What the Oil and Gas Industry Needs to Know”, Pratt’s Energy Law Report, Vol. 19, No. 8 – September 2019
- Co-author, “Leases, Language and Litigation: A Ten-Year Retrospective on the Evolution of Leasing in Appalachia,” 10th Law of Shale Plays Conference, September 4, 2019
- Co-author, "Quandaries Involving Apportionment," Energy & Min. L. Inst., (2025)
- Co-instructor, “Advanced Legal Drafting for Pennsylvania Paralegals and Basic Legal Drafting for Pennsylvania Paralegals,” 2001-2004
- Speaker, “Pipeline Agreements and Storage Leases,” National Business Institute, 2013
- Speaker, “Lease Challenges, Disputes and Negotiations,” National Business Institute, 2014
- Regular guest lecturer on oil and gas law, University of Pittsburgh, Katz School of Business, 2011-present
- Moderator and panelist, “Bad Faith Pooling and Unitization in the Development of Shale Formations,” Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, 36th Annual Institute, June 30, 2015
- Co-presenter, “Briggs: Game-Changer for Subsurface Trespass?”, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, May 3, 2018
- Moderator and panelist, “What Do You Mean We Can’t Do That? – Antitrust Law Implications for Upstream Joint Development Arrangements,” Energy & Mineral Law Foundation, 39th Annual Institute, June 19, 2018
- Co-presenter, “Emerging Issues in Energy Litigation, Briggs and Beyond,” The Center for American and International Law, 9th Law of Shale Plays Conference, September 6, 2018
- Co-presenter, “Oil and Gas: Briggs and the Unsettled State of the Law of Capture,” Washington County Winter Bench Bar, March 1, 2019
- Co-presenter, “The Rule of Capture & Subsurface Trespass Claims After Briggs,” Pennsylvania Bar Institute, April 19, 2020
Honors
- Recipient of the Eric W. Springer Professionalism Award from the W. Edward Sell American Inn of Court, January 2018
- J. Reuben Clark Law Society, Member
- W. Edward Sell American Inn of Court, President, 2012-2014
- Hay-Sell American Inn of Court, Member
- American Arbitration Association, Roster of Arbitrators
Industry Groups
- Construction
- Gas
- Oil
Office location for Kenneth J. Witzel
20399 Route 19
Suite 206
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
Phone: 725-238-3932
Selections
1 Year Super Lawyers
- Super Lawyers: 2026
