Steve Joseph Levitt

Steven Levitt is a litigation partner in Holland & Knight's Dallas office and a member of the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors' Rights Group. Mr. Levitt has extensive experience representing major case participants in all aspects of complex corporate bankruptcies, out-of-court restructurings, receiverships, bankruptcy-related litigation and distressed acquisitions in Texas, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Louisiana, California and other jurisdictions. Mr. Levitt's engagements have ranged across a wide array of industries, including healthcare, oil and gas, energy, financial services, life settlements, construction, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, transportation and real estate.

During his career, Mr. Levitt has represented secured and unsecured creditors, debtors, unsecured creditors' committees, Chapter 11 trustees, purchasers of distressed assets and large bankruptcy litigation targets (including substantial equity holders and former officers and directors) in allegations of fraudulent transfers, preferences and/or breach of fiduciary duty claims, as well as debtor-in-possession (DIP) lenders. Mr. Levitt frequently represents or advises upstream and midstream oil and gas companies and counterparties, energy lenders and private equity groups that specialize in distressed energy acquisitions.

Representative Experience

• Represented the largest secured creditor of a large Illinois-based skilled nursing facility operator in its Chapter 11 cases in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
• Represented the Chapter 11 trustee for Life Partners Holdings Inc., a life settlement company with greater than $1.4 billion in liabilities, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas; Life Partners received the Turnaround Atlas Award for "Chapter 11 Restructuring of the Year" in the U.S. and the Turnaround Management Association Turnaround and Transaction of the Year Award for "Turnaround of the Year: Large Company"
• Represented the official unsecured creditors' committee of an upstream energy producer with greater than $1 billion in liabilities in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
• Represented an official committee of unsecured creditors of a medical device manufacturer in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas
• Represent one of the largest unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy cases of Genesis Healthcare Inc. and its affiliates, which operate approximately 175 skilled nursing facilities and assisted/independent living facilities and have liabilities of more than $2.3 billion, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas
• Represent an ad hoc group of noteholders in the bankruptcy case of a bank holding company in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas
• Represent the senior secured lender in the bankruptcy case of a senior care center pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas
• Represented the debtors, an independent exploration and production (E&P) company, Approach Resources Inc. and its affiliates, focused on the acquisition and development of U.S. onshore oil and natural gas resources with approximately $400 million in liabilities, resulting in a confirmed plan in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represented former subsidiaries of a life settlement provider that had more than $2 billion in liabilities, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represented a fund manager that was a defendant in a fraudulent transfer adversary proceeding alleging more than $1 billion in cumulative damages stemming from the bankruptcy case of one of the largest global specialty biopharmaceutical companies, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
• Represented a large financial institution as debtor-in-possession (DIP) agent and prepetition senior creditor of an independent oil and natural gas E&P company with more than $60 million in liabilities, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represented a large financial institution as collateral trustee and senior secured lender of Sanchez Energy Corporation, which engaged in the development and production of onshore domestic oil and natural gas properties and had more than $2 billion in liabilities, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represented the debtor, Ector County Energy Center LLC, an Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) energy provider impacted by Winter Storm Uri, in Chapter 11 proceedings that distributed the proceeds of a market-high, per-megawatt price transaction resulting from a highly competitive Section 363 sale process through a confirmed Chapter 11 plan that invoked more than $600 million in negotiated claim caps to yield a 100 percent dividend to non-insider creditors in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
• Represent a large financial institution as senior secured lender with an asset-based loan (ABL) in a receivership involving a lien-priority dispute with tens of millions of dollars of asserted agricultural liens
• Represent one of the largest creditors in a bankruptcy involving a failed whiskey brand
• Represented predecessors-in-interest for offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) decommissioning liabilities in numerous bankruptcy cases throughout the country
• Represented joint working interest owners who were the defendant in a lawsuit alleging more than $200 million in damages in the bankruptcy case of an upstream exploration and production (E&P) company, resulting in a mediated settlement in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represent the senior secured lender and DIP lender in jointly administered single asset real estate cases pending in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey
• Represented the senior secured lender and obtained dismissal of a debtor's bankruptcy case in a case involving U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) housing in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey
• Represented the debtors, oil and gas businesses engaged in acquiring, owning, developing and operating long-life oil and natural gas properties in Texas and Oklahoma with more than $100 million in debt, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
• Represented overriding royalty interest owners in the bankruptcy case of an offshore Gulf of Mexico upstream company in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division
• Represented a fund manager and employee creditors in In re Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
• Advised numerous midstream oil and gas companies on oil and gas counterparty risk relating to potential rejection of midstream contracts
• Advised numerous upstream oil and gas companies on the perfection of oil and gas liens