Eric Michael Van Horn

Eric M. Van Horn serves as Practice Area Leader for McCathern's Bankruptcy, Restructuring, & Creditors' Rights section. He represents clients across the country in all aspects of bankruptcy, reorganizations, out-of-court restructurings and workouts, re-financing and forbearance negotiations and disputes, collection actions, multi-jurisdictional insolvencies, corporate liquidations, and other bankruptcy-related litigation matters.

Van Horn joined the firm as Of Counsel in October 2014. He has represented all constituencies in complex Chapter 11 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases throughout the country, including Chapter 11 debtors, bankruptcy trustees, official committees of unsecured creditors and investors, secured lenders, landlords, general unsecured creditors, and bidders for assets in 363 sales. He has specific experience representing clients in oil and gas, manufacturing, healthcare, restaurant, manufacturing, retail, and technology industries.

Highlights from Van Horn’s representative experience include: 

• Representing a foreign based publicly traded oil and gas technology investment fund resulting in the successful dismissal of $1 million fraudulent transfer suit brought in federal district court (Case No. 4:15-CV-00613 in the Southern District of Texas)

• Representing a potential bidder for the oil and gas assets of Dune Energy, Inc. (Case No. 15-10336 in the Western District of Texas Bankruptcy Court)

• Representing a public company as a creditor, landlord, and IP licensor in the Chapter 11 case of its tenant/licensee (Case No. 14-44622 in the Northern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court)

• Representing the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in the Chapter 11 case of Falcon Steel Company (Case No. 14-42585 in the Northern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court)

• Representing the Official Committee of Investors and the Liquidating Trustee in the Chapter 11 case of Provident Royalties, LLC, an oil & gas company, involving a $485 million Ponzi scheme and a parallel SEC receivership in federal district court (Case No. 09-33886 in the Northern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court)

• Representing Scotia Pacific Company, a Chapter 11 debtor with nearly $1 billion of debt secured by 200,000 acres of Redwood trees (Case No. 07-20027 in the Southern District of Texas Bankruptcy Court)

Currently, Van Horn serves as Vice President of Communications and Publications on the Council of the Bankruptcy Law section of the State Bar of Texas and is a frequent speaker and published author for a number of bankruptcy issues. Recently, Van Horn coordinated and moderated a panel presentation on the Baker Botts LLP v. ASARCO LLC Supreme Court decision and served as a panelist for programs hosted by the American Bar Association on the topics of oil and gas bankruptcy issues, and intellectual property in bankruptcy.

Van Horn also co-developed and co-instructed the “Financial Crisis & Restructuring Law” course at The University of Texas at Austin – McCombs School of Business and School of Law. He is licensed to practice before all state courts in Texas, and the federal district and federal bankruptcy courts in the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of Texas. After graduating from The University of Texas School of Law, Van Horn served as a federal judicial law clerk for the Honorable Leif M. Clark, United States Bankruptcy Judge (retired) for the Western District of Texas. During law school, he worked as a Research Assistant to Professor Jay L. Westbrook, one of the world’s leading experts on Chapter 11 and international bankruptcy law, and served as an Editor for the Texas International Law Journal.