Yeates is currently a partner practicing oil and gas law with the Gordon Arata McCollam Duplantis & Eagan LLP.
His many articles include Louisiana and Texas Oil & Gas Law: An Overview of the Differences (1992), Strategies Outlined for Doing Business in Russia (1992), The Accounting Provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (1994), and Indemnification and Anti-Indemnity Statutes as They Relate to Mineral Rights and Contracts (1986).
Yeates's first novel, Bay of One Hundred Fires (ISBN 0-9726822-1-X), published in 2004, is an alternate history based geo-political thriller that speculates what Saddam Hussein might have done with the deadly weapons many people believed he had.
In the novel, the nuclear-powered USS California is overhauled and upgraded, and plays a key role in fighting Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who has, at least in the book, created a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
When the California was delivered to the U.S. Navy, Yeates was at the helm when the ship departed the Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company for its maiden voyage at sea.