David Bennett

David Bennett has played a leading role in business reorganizations, both in and out of court, in Texas and throughout the nation. He has extensive transaction and commercial litigation experience related to troubled and insolvent businesses. His experience includes representing companies, fiduciaries, lenders as well as constituencies from every segment of the capital structure. He frequently represents capital providers to, and acquirers of, troubled and insolvent businesses and related assets. In 2017, Mr. Bennett received the Turnaround Atlas award for "Restructuring Lawyer of the Year" in the U.S.

David Bennett "has robust skills in handling both in-court and out-of-court reorganizations." - Chambers USA 2019

"David Bennett is also an expert in bankruptcies relating to the oil and gas sector. He is praised for his creativity: 'He’s fantastic in the way he thinks outside of the box.'" - Chambers USA 2011

Representative Experience

• Served as counsel to Thomas Moran, the Chapter 11 trustee for Life Partners, a life settlement company with greater than $1.4 billion in liabilities. Life Partners Holdings, Inc. received the 2017 Turnaround Atlas award for “Chapter 11 Restructuring of the Year” in the U.S. and the 2017 Turnaround Management Association Turnaround and Transaction of the Year Award for “Turnaround of the Year: Large Company”
• Currently serving as counsel for agent to GE Capital EFS Financing, Inc. in the Chapter 11 case of Trinity River Resources, LP
• Currently serving as counsel to agent for Wilmington Trust, National Association, in the Chapter 11 case of III Exploration
• Currently serving as counsel for overriding royalty interest owners in the bankruptcy case of ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, an offshore Gulf of Mexico upstream company
• Served as counsel to Parallel Energy LP in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, which was filed to facilitate a sale process initiated prior to bankruptcy for a purchase prices of more than $100 million
• Served as counsel to the Official Unsecured Creditors’ Committee in the Delaware Chapter 11 case of Endeavour Operating Corporation et al., an upstream producer with greater than $1 billion of liabilities
• Served as counsel for group of prepetition secured lenders in the bankruptcy case of Global Geophysical Services, Inc., a seismic-data provider for some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world
• Represented Cano Petroleum Inc. and its affiliates, a public company upstream debtor, which obtained confirmation of a pre-negotiated Chapter 11 plan in four months
• Represented an ad hoc mezzanine bondholder group (fulcrum creditors) with secured claims totaling more than $250 million in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Crusader Energy Group Inc.
• Represented the agent banks of a bank-group owed more than $2 billion in the Mirant Energy bankruptcy cases
• Represented debtor Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V, a Mexican glass manufacturer, in its Chapter 15 proceeding which was part of a cross-border restructuring of Vitro’s greater than $2 billion in liabilities
• Represented the purchaser of a significant exploration and production company, Michael Petroleum Corporation, out of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case (over $100 million purchase price)
• Represented the acquirer of substantially all of the assets in the Chapter 11 case of EnRe, Inc., an onshore exploration and production producer with assets in Texas (Barnett Shale), as well as Wyoming and Louisiana
• Represented a counter-party to a production payment in the TransTexas Gas Corp. case
• Represented an informal committee of activist Enron North America creditors with claims totaling more than $1 billion in the New York Chapter 11 cases of Enron and its affiliates
• Represented the agent for the secured bank group in a New Orleans Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Forcenergy Inc.
• Represented Amdura Corporation, a public company, in its Denver Chapter 11 bankruptcy case
• Represented the Southwest Producer Group, counter-parties to rejected take-or-pay contracts with attendant claims greater than $500 million, in the Delaware Chapter 11 case of Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation and its affiliates
• Represented the debtor in the Southmark Corporation bankruptcy case, which was a significant integrated company in the energy, real estate development and syndication, insurance, and thrift businesses, with more than $12 billion in total liabilities