Jonathan L. Howell

Representative Experience

• Served as lead counsel for the official unsecured creditors’ committee in Falcon Steel Company and New Falcon Steel, LLC, which collectively represents the interests of holders of approximately $4.5 million in unsecured debt owed to various creditor constituencies.
• Served as lead counsel for the debtors, the developers and operators of a mixed-use real estate property in Denton County, Texas, in reorganizing over $10 million in debts and formulating a plan that pays unsecured creditors in full, allows principals to retain their equity interest, and resolves over five-years of contentious litigation.
• Served as lead debtors’ counsel in a Chapter 11 reorganization of an East Texas Best Western branded hotel and adjacent restaurant involving the successful confirmation of a Chapter 11 plan that reorganizes over $2 million in debts, pays unsecured creditors in full, plus interest, over the term of three years and allows the principals to retain their equity.
• Served as co-counsel to auction participant that bid on assets, valued at $2.7 billion, in the Erickson Retirement Communities LLC bankruptcy case in an attempt to acquire the debtors’ operations.
• Acted as lead counsel for multiple Texas-based landlords in Blockbuster, Inc., Ritz Camera & Image LLC, Idearc, Inc., Circuit City Stores, Inc., and Mr. E’s Music Supercenters, Inc., successfully maximizing landlords’ recoveries for unpaid lease obligations.
• Represented creditors and natural gas providers in numerous complex Chapter 11 cases and avoidance actions, including but not limited to, Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., Charter Communications, Inc., Flying J, Inc., Lear Corp., Linens Holding Co., Masonite Corp., Movie Gallery, Inc. SemCrude, L.P., AMR Corp., and Energy Future Holdings Corp.
• Served as debtors’ counsel to family office and Wyndham franchisees in the Chapter 11 reorganization of twenty-two hotels and over $75 million of debt, ending in the successful confirmation of a consensual Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
• Served as lead counsel in successfully defending a Dallas-based technology firm against Nortel Networks, Inc. for alleged preferential transfers, aggregating more than $3.1 million, and resulting in a complete dismissal of all allegations.
• Acted as debtors’ counsel to four Hyatt franchisees in contested Chapter 11 bankruptcy case and subsequent district court and Fifth Circuit appeals in Texas Grand Prairie Hotel Realty, LLC, leading to the affirmance of the bankruptcy court’s decision to confirm the debtors’ Chapter 11 plan of reorganization.
• Represented numerous debtors and trustees in Chapter 11 reorganization and liquidation cases, including but not limited to, Lewis Equipment Co., Denar, LLC, Golden Restaurants, CSD, LLC, Vanderra Resources, LLC, and Domistyle, Inc.
• Served as counsel to creditors’ committee in Home Interiors & Gifts, Inc. and Centennial Beverage Group, LLC bankruptcy cases.

Mr. Howell is licensed to practice law before all state and federal courts in Texas and frequently appears as counsel in federal bankruptcy courts throughout the United States, including in the Southern District of New York and in the District of Delaware.

Mr. Howell grew up in Lake Highlands community in Dallas, attended St. John’s Episcopal School, and graduated from J.J. Pearce High School before attending SMU.