
Paul E. Heath

Texas Tower
845 Texas Avenue
Suite 4700
Houston, Texas 77002

An accomplished lawyer with more than 30 years of experience, Paul is a partner in the Restructuring and Reorganization practice group. During his career, Paul has handled a multitude of complex chapter 11 bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructuring matters. He regularly represents public and private companies, and advises their respective board of directors and senior management on developing solutions for reorganizing capital structures and business operations. His clients include companies in a range of industries, including energy, distribution, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications.
Paul also devotes a significant portion of his practice to the representation of senior secured lenders (both individual lenders and agented lender groups). In addition, he represents strategic and financial purchasers of assets from financially distressed companies. Paul has been recognized for his work by The Best Lawyers in America© and Chambers USA.
Experience Highlights
Riverstone Holdings LLC, its portfolio company, Talen Energy Corporation (TEC), and TEC’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Cumulus Growth Holdings LLC in the chapter 11 cases of TEC’s wholly-owned subsidiary Talen Energy Supply, LLC, which involved key settlements that paved the way for a consensual reorganization of Talen’s legacy power generation business and the Cumulus data center and cryptomining growth initiatives and allowed Riverstone to retain material equity positions in both TEC and Cumulus Growth
CARBO Ceramics Inc. and certain of its affiliates, who were engaged in the manufacturing of ceramic proppant and other industrial ceramic materials and products, in their chapter 11 bankruptcy cases filed in Houston, Texas; pre-negotiated chapter 11 plan confirmed within 80 days of case filing
California Resources Corporation and certain of its affiliates, as company co-counsel, in their pre-negotiated chapter 11 cases filed in Houston, Texas
Cloud Peak Energy in the sale of substantially all their operating assets to an affiliate of the Navajo Nation as part of its Chapter 11 cases involving approximately $350 million in funded debt and over $750 million in total liabilities
Taco Bueno Restaurants in a prepetition debt sale transaction followed by an in-court restructuring in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas that involved equitizing $140 million in senior secured debt, transitioning ownership to an affiliate of Sun Holdings, Inc., renegotiating a substantial portion of the company’s lease portfolio, and reaching a global settlement with unsecured creditors in fewer than 45 days
Sundevil Power Holdings LLC, a merchant power company, in connection with the sale of its power block assets in its chapter 11 case filed in Delaware
Unit Corporation, a diversified, publicly-traded energy company engaged in oil and natural gas exploration and production, contract drilling, and midstream services, and its affiliates in connection with its prearranged chapter 11 cases deleveraging the company by approximately $650 million in a debt-for-equity transaction with its subordinated noteholders
Natural Resource Partners, a master limited partnership principally engaged in owning and managing mineral reserve properties, in connection with its comprehensive out-of-court restructuring
Energy XXI, a publicly-traded offshore energy E&P company, in connection with its chapter 11 cases which reduced the company’s funded debt by approximately $3.0 billion
Energy Partners, Ltd., a public company engaged in oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, as debtor in its chapter 11 case filed in Houston, Texas; pre-negotiated a plan of reorganization based on an exchange of $475 million in debt for equity confirmed within 90 days of case filing
Integrated Electrical Services, Inc. in its pre-negotiated chapter 11 case based on a debt-for-equity exchange confirmed within 75 days of case filing
Daisytek, Incorporated, a public company that was among the world’s largest distributors of computer products, in its chapter 11 case filed in Dallas, Texas; successful in negotiating and closing multiple asset sales for their domestic entities and stock sales of their foreign entities located in Canada, Mexico, and Argentina
Lack’s Stores, Inc., one of the largest independently owned retail furniture chains in selling substantially all of its retail assets located throughout Texas in its chapter 11 case filed in Houston
National Energy Gas & Transmission, Inc. as special counsel to the debtor in the resolution of approximately $200 million in intercompany claims in a chapter 11 case filed in Maryland
Petsec Energy Inc., an offshore oil and gas exploration and production company based in Lafayette, Louisiana, as debtor in connection with the restructure of its public bond debt in a chapter 11 case
El Paso Electric Company, as Texas counsel to the debtor, who was only the second investor-owned public utility to file a chapter 11 case
An ad hoc group first lien term lenders, as co-counsel, in the chapter 11 cases of Neiman Marcus Group LTD, LLC and certain debtor affiliates filed in Houston, Texas
JPMorgan Chase Bank as Administrative Agent, DIP Agent, and Exit Facility Agent of a $615 million credit facility in Denbury Resources’ restructuring and prepackaged voluntary chapter 11 bankruptcy
An ad hoc group of lenders holding approximately $175 million in senior secured term debt in the prepackaged chapter 11 cases of Pioneer Energy Services Inc.
Clearlake Capital Partners IV Finance LP as the primary secured lender to Knight Energy Holdings LLC and certain of its affiliates in their chapter 11 cases filed in Lafayette, Louisiana; pre-negotiated plan of reorganization confirmed within 110 days of case filing
Bank of America, N.A. as agent to the senior secured lenders under a working capital facility in the chapter 11 case of Basic Energy Services Inc. filed in Delaware
Texas counsel to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. as agent to the senior secured lenders in the chapter 11 case of Memorial Production Partners filed in Houston, Texas
Angelo, Gordon Energy Servicer LLC, as agent to the senior secured lenders in the chapter 11 cases of Rooster Energy Ltd. and it subsidiaries filed in Lafayette, Louisiana
White Oak Global Advisors LLC as agent on behalf of the secured lenders in the chapter 11 case on Bainbridge Unita LLC filed in Fort Worth, Texas
JPMorgan Chase Bank in the chapter 11 case of Chaparral Energy, an oil and natural gas exploration and production company, filed in Delaware
Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. as a senior secured lender to Trinity River Resources L.P. in its chapter 11 case filed in Austin, Texas
Agent to senior secured lenders in the chapter 11 case of Levelland/Hockley County Ethanol, LLC, an ethanol refiner filed in Lubbock, Texas
Texas counsel to ad hoc group of first lien lenders in the chapter 11 case of the Texas Rangers baseball club
Wayzata Investment Partners LLC, as the second lien lender in the chapter 11 case of Harvest Oil & Gas, LLC, an oil and gas company, filed in Lafayette, Louisiana
Collateral agent and senior secured lender in the chapter 11 case of Seven Seas Petroleum Inc., whose assets included oil and gas concessions located in Colombia, South America
A senior secured lender in a compulsory liquidation case filed in Grand Cayman and chapter 11 case filed in Miami, Florida, of Pan American Sports Network International/PSN USA, Inc., Latin American sports media companies
The primary secured lender in the chapter 11 case of Empire Funding Corporation, an entity that specialized in the acquisition, servicing, and securitization of over $3 billion in HLTV mortgage loans
Ad Hoc Committee of Secured Noteholders in the chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Tri-Union Development Corporation, an energy exploration and production company, filed in Houston, Texas
Trammell Crow International Partners: as Counsel to the senior secured lender with outstanding debt in excess of $100 million secured by sixteen commercial properties located throughout the United States; successful in obtaining confirmation of a chapter 11 creditors’ plan of reorganization
Preferred limited partner of ATP Infrastructure Partners LP, the owner of the ATP Innovator (a deep water floating production platform) in connection with the chapter 11 case of ATP Oil & Gas, Inc. filed in Houston, Texas
Equity sponsor of International Wire Group, Inc., a leading manufacturer and marketer of wire products, in IWG’s pre-negotiated chapter 11 case filed in the Southern District of New York; client obtained a distribution of new equity under the confirmed plan of reorganization
Centerbridge Partners LP as the DIP lender to and acquiror of SpeedCast International Limited in its chapter 11 case filed in Houston, Texas
TH Exploration III, LLC as the section 363 stalking horse bidder for the Appalachia Assets marketed for sale in the chapter 11 case of Stone Energy filed in Houston, Texas
Consortium of new money equity investors (referred to as the Hunt Investors) in connection with the reorganization transactions for Energy Future Holdings, Inc. and its ownership interest in Oncor Electric in the chapter 11 case of Energy Future Holdings filed in Delaware
Purchaser of a merchant power plant located in Dighton, Massachusetts, in the chapter 11 case of Calpine Corporation, and its related debtor entities, filed in the Southern District of New York
Purchaser of substantially all domestic assets and foreign subsidiaries of Maxide Music, Inc. (f/k/a DMX Music, Inc.) in its chapter 11 case in Delaware; Maxide was a leading global producer of music and entertainment subscription services to business locations, customer subscribers, and airlines
Purchaser of substantially all assets of VF Brands, Inc., the chapter 11 debtor, including its Vlasic Pickle business and Swanson frozen dinners business for a $370 million purchase price
Chapter 11 trustee of Innovative Communication Corporation, a holding company that owned non-debtor operating subsidiaries engaged in the telecommunications and media businesses in the United States Virgin Islands, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and other locations
Credentials
- The University of Texas School of Law, J.D. with honors
- The University of Texas, B.B.A.
- Chambers USA, Bankruptcy/Restructuring (Texas), 2007–2022
- Who’s Who Legal: Texas (Law Business Research, Ltd.), Insolvency and Restructuring Law, 2008
- The Best Lawyers in America© (BL Rankings, LLC), Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights/Insolvency and Reorganization Law (Houston), 2007−2023
- Legal 500 U.S., Finance: Restructuring (including Bankruptcy): Corporate, 2018 and 2022
- Selected to the Texas Super Lawyers list, Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), 2012−2013
- Member: American Bankruptcy Institute; Turnaround Management Association
- Chancellor’s Executive Council, The University of Texas System
- The University of Texas Littlefield Society
- Co-Chair: 32nd Annual Advanced Business Bankruptcy Course, sponsored by the State Bar of Texas, 2015
- Co-Chair: 31st Annual Advanced Business Bankruptcy Course, sponsored by the State Bar of Texas, 2014
- Texas
- U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Eleventh Circuit
- InsightMay 2, 2023
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
- InsightMarch 12, 2023
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
- Deals & CasesFebruary 28, 2023
- InsightJanuary 23, 2023
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
- InsightAugust 26, 2022
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
Published in Law360, September 15, 2022 - Rankings & AwardsAugust 18, 2022
- Rankings & AwardsJune 16, 2022
- Rankings & AwardsJune 1, 2022
- Rankings & AwardsSeptember 22, 2021
- Deals & CasesJune 7, 2021
- Deals & CasesMay 10, 2021
- InsightMay 18, 2020
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
- “Restructurings in the Energy Industry: Lessons Learned and Recent Developments,” V&E Energy Series, April 2017 (panelist)
- “From Peak to Trough: Structuring Energy Deals on the Way Down,” University of Texas Law Mergers & Acquisition Institute, October 2016 (panelist)
- “Bankruptcy Considerations for Oil & Gas Industry,” American Bar Association Center for Professional Development, June 2014 (speaker)
- “Valuation of Lawsuits,” State Bar of Texas 29th Annual Advanced Business Bankruptcy Course, 2011 (speaker)
News & Insights
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update
V&E Restructuring & Reorganization Update