Rubislaw Associates Limited was established by Donald Gormley in 2012 following almost 25 years legal and commercial experience gleaned from legal private practice and the oil and gas industry.

Donald is a graduate of Aberdeen University and worked in private practice for 12 years prior to moving into the oil industry joining Conoco (U.K) Limited in 2000 as a Legal Advisor.

In 2004 Donald was recruited by M-I Swaco as their Senior Regional Counsel, Eastern Hemisphere, responsible for management of the legal functional support to all business sectors across Europe, Africa, the Russian Federation and the rapidly developing republics of the former Soviet Union i.e. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. For a period of almost 2 years Donald also simultaneously assumed similar responsibilities for the Southern Hemisphere which covered Middle East, Asia, South East Asia and Australasia.

The range of responsibilities included corporate acquisitions and disposals, cross border jurisdictional joint venture agreements with multi-national and NOC’s, the review, negotiation and conclusion of all manner of client and customer commercial contracts, intellectual property matters, licensing agreements, non-disclosure agreements, agency agreements, commercial and residential property leases, foreign corporate entity establishment, incorporation and registration and general company secretarial issues and training the legal function and business managers in corporate governance, compliance and contract review disciplines. Donald was also a member of the Eastern Hemisphere Management Team and a Board Director of M-I SWACO’s main trading UK company and the UK and European registered MI companies.

In 2010 following the acquisition of M-I Swaco by Schlumberger Inc Donald was appointed as Senior Legal Counsel – Global Strategic Contracts reporting to the General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer.

In 2012 following the establishment of Rubislaw Associates Limited Donald joined ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited as sole Contracts Consultant for the Capital Projects Group advising and providing support on legal and commercial matters relative to ConocoPhillips’ Jasmine, Britannia LTC, Alder, Enochdhu, Rivers Gas Terminal,Theddlethorpe Gas Terminal (Freon Replacement) and De-commissioning Projects, supply chain / procurement issues, the preparation and negotiation of tenders, negotiation and resolution of complex contractual issues, disputing, negotiating and settling VOR’s and claims with engineering and construction companies, closing out projects; negotiation of all project related contracts e.g. EPC, EPIC, heavy lift and flotel contracts, de-commissioning and disposal contracts; drafting, review and development of a range of contract templates for business and operations support, training and development of contracts specialists / engineers and training on compliance and / or contractual issues.