The engineers don’t want to talk to the “dirt kickers” because it’s beneath them. Who’s going to fill that gap? A fucking landman. The engineer says “here’s what I need and how you should do it” and the landman goes out to make that happen…never perfectly, but hopefully it will at least be deemed “adequate.” Geologists see a reservoir they want to explore, so they draw a blob on a map. Guess who gets to turn that blob into the tracts (both surface and mineral), calculate the ownership, and then get the leases signed so that the geologist can poke a hole in the ground? Yeah, it’s going to be a landman. When the attorneys finish their DOTOs and say “we need this title defect from 1905 cured” who in their right mind wants to go stomping around overgrown cemeteries taking pictures of headstones in 110 degree heat to establish birth/death dates for Juan Sr, Juan Grande, Juan Guapo, Juan Chapo, Juan III, Juan Gordo, and Juan Hijo? Call the landman, he’ll do it!
Doing the work the lawyers and engineers can’t/won’t do, for a fraction of the cost, and a beer.