William J. Hotze

Representative Experience

• Represented debtors in highly-contested chapter 11 bankruptcy case of gulf-coast dredging company (In re Timothy and Linda LaQuay)
• Represented the Official Unsecured Creditors of chapter 11 oilfield services company in formulation and execution plan of liquidation (In re WB Supply LLC)
• Represented jointly administered debtors in chapter 11 of national restaurant chain resulting in confirmed plan of reorganization within 32 days (In re Pepi Companies, LLC)
• Represented senior secured creditor in chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Napa Valley vineyard resulting in sale vineyard in satisfaction of client’s claim (In re SVP)
• Represented large agricultural producer in Perishable Agricultural Commodity Act litigation (Mastronardi International Limited v. SunSelect Produce (California), Inc.)
• Represented chapter 7 trustee of wholesale florist debtor resulting in near 100% return to unsecured creditors (In re Greenleaf Wholesale Florist, Inc.)
• Represented 50% owner of Neiman Marcus in Neiman Marcus’ bankruptcy case (In re Neiman Marcus Group Ltd LLC).
• Represented ad hoc bondholder group of Dean Foods holding over $400 million in bond debt of the nation’s largest milk processor (In re Southern Foods Group, LLC)
• Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of chapter 11 oil and gas producer as trial counsel in contested confirmation trial in billion-dollar valuation fight (In re Legacy Reserves Inc.)
• Represented investor and backstop party in the chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of the oil and gas producer EP Energy (In re EP Energy Corporation)
• Represented the purchaser in a contested sale hearing on the disputed purchase of substantially all of the assets (comprised mostly of offshore oil and gas rigs) from a bankrupt oil & gas producer free of alleged preferential rights (In re Northstar Offshore Group, LLC)
• Represented the majority shareholders of Gibson Brands in its chapter 11 bankruptcy. The matter was recognized as the 2019 Mid-Size Company Transaction of the Year by the Turnaround Management Association (In re Gibson Brands, Inc.)
• Represented oil major in the chapter 11 bankruptcy cases of PG&E (In re PG&E Corporation and Pacific Gas and Electric Company)
• Represented consortium lead Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering in the bankruptcy of a Singapore-based subsea pipeline company on the creation of a new form of framework agreement to preserve client rights and a consortium’s rights to billions of dollars of contracts with Saudi Aramco.
• Represented the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors of a chapter 11 Debtor with 5.6 million barrels of oil and 3.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas in the Gulf Coast, three oil fields in Wyoming, and probable reserves of 99 million barrels of oil in Alaska’s North Slope.

Publications

• Wage Wars: Employee Class Actions and the Bankruptcy Proof of Claim Process (JDSupra)
• Rejection of Oil and Gas Contracts Can Only Go So Far (Law360)