 Vern is a high honors graduate of Indiana University (Bloomington) College of Arts and Sciences (AB 1958) and School of Law (LLB 1960), with notable awards including Moffat Prize in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, John Hay Edwards Fellowship and Editor-in-Chief, Indiana Law Journal. As a member of the Indiana State Bar Association, he has served as Chair of the Probate Trust and Real Property Section, member of the Environmental Law Section, member of the Board of Managers and select committees on medical malpractice reform, trial courts reorganization, and lawyer specialization (Chair). Practice areas include: - Civil trials and appeals involving construction, property settlements; property rights and regulation; coal, gas and oil development contracts; regulatory agency authority.
- Hearings and negotiations with regulatory agencies: USDA Farm Service Agency, US and Indiana Fish and Wildlife Agencies, US and Indiana Environmental Protection Agencies, Indiana Department of Natural Resources (oil and gas, reclamation and waters divisions), US Army Corp of Engineers.
- Transactional drafting, analysis and opinions for both in-state and as Indiana Counsel for multi-state acquisitions, mergers and high dollar mortgage lending.
- Private family trusts and estates.
Some of the highlights of Vern's practice are successful constitutional defense of Indiana Dormant Mineral Act in Indiana and US Supreme Courts in behalf of local farmers (Texico, Inc. v Short, 1980-1982); authoring Indiana Supreme Court Admission and Discipline Rule 30 regulating legal specialty certification (1994); serving on multiple occasions, as an expert witness on the interpretation of conveyancing documents involving mineral rights for both trials and mediation; securing reversal of two federal agency actions with attorney fee awards. Publications consist of occasional continuing legal education essays on land related subjects; the most recent of which is an indepth review of oil and gas well spacing and unitization regulation in Indiana (Halfmoon Publications 2014). |