When a divorce becomes a business story

Reuters correspondent Joshua Schneyer was Reuters was first to report that Continental Resources CEO Harold Hamm was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion in a divorce judgment.

Here is an excerpt:

Q. How did you score this exclusive?

A. I got a tip that a new document had just appeared in Oklahoma’s court filing system. We were first to report on the 80-page, $1 billion divorce ruling because we’ve kept a watchful eye on the case docket. Reuters has covered the divorce for two years. There were billions at stake, and Harold Hamm is a leading figure in the energy industry, believed to own more oil than any other American. His $14 billion in wealth is tied up in shares of a major publicly traded company. That made the divorce into a business story.

Q. What types of reporting/sourcing were involved?

A. While the ruling was filed publicly, much of the case was conducted in secrecy. Our story on the ruling culminated a long-term reporting effort that began in early 2013, when Reuters broke the news of the pending Hamm divorce. Since then, we have aimed to give readers as much detail as we could about a huge divorce conducted mostly in private under the judge’s orders. We learned a lot by sifting through legal documents. I also went to Oklahoma County Court several times (and often got turned away). Luckily, we had already made some valuable contacts before the trial began. Last year, Brian Grow and I rented cars and separately drove all around Oklahoma, talking to more than 25 people who are close to the parties in the case, eating $7 chicken-fried steak, and at one point narrowly missing a major tornado. Our sources included several witnesses and others with eyes inside the courthouse. Getting them to speak with us wasn’t always easy. Continental is one of Oklahoma’s biggest companies, and the Hamms are considered Oklahoma oil royalty. For the most part, they didn’t want the divorce making headlines.

Read more here.