Picture of J. Eric Lockridge

J. Eric Lockridge

Partner

Eric Lockridge enjoys helping clients solve problems that arise in their businesses. His practice includes business litigation, bankruptcy and business reorganization, commercial collections, and assisting clients with business transactions. He has tried commercial and tort cases to verdict in Louisiana and Texas, and has successfully defended judgments on appeal. Eric currently focuses on lender work-out agreements, bankruptcy-related litigation, negotiation and dispute resolution, and complex commercial cases for Kean Miller’s construction, energy, and financial sector clients. Eric also works with Kean Miller’s intellectual property team to litigate patent, trademark, and copyright claims, and with Kean Miller's labor and employment law team to advise employers and to defend them in court when necessary.

Eric advises corporate clients, lenders, and distressed-asset investors in asset acquisitions and sales, financing, corporate structures, document-retention programs, and insurance-related issues. Eric practiced law in Texas for six years before joining Kean Miller in 2005, and continues to represent clients in litigation and bankruptcy matters in Texas.

Eric is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Representative Experience

Loan Negotiations, Workouts, and Collateral Review

  • Represent lenders and borrowers in financing negotiations and distressed debt workouts for secured financing ranging from $100,000 to $100,000,000. Recent workouts include borrowers in the following sectors: auto sales and finance, construction, consumer finance, energy, equipment leasing, healthcare, offshore production, offshore services, real estate development, retail, and shipbuilding
  • Represented a joint venture entity through the acquisition, improvement, financing, and operation of the largest retail/office/residential development in Louisiana
  • Assists lenders, debt purchasers, and national counsel with legal due diligence, collateral review, and opinion letters

General Bankruptcy

  • Regularly advises multinational and local energy companies, service companies, and contractors on bankruptcy matters involving their contractors, operators, partners, vendors, and their predecessors and successors in title
  • Regularly represents banks, commercial finance companies, other secured lenders and servicers in bankruptcy cases in Louisiana and the Southern Districts of Texas.
  • Represented energy company in its acquisition of offshore assets from the estate of a bankrupt E&P company, In re Bennu Oil & Gas, LLC, Southern District of Texas
  • Counsel to Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in a Chapter 11 case for multiple hospital entities, In re Progressive Acute Care, LLC, et al., Western District of Louisiana
  • Counsel to Ad Hoc Committee of Secured Bondholders in a Chapter 11 case filed by nursing home operator, In re Rock Glen Healthcare, Inc., Middle District of Louisiana
  • Initiated an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy case for a software firm where the court granted our request for a Chapter 11 Trustee, In re Thinkstream Incorporated, Middle District of Louisiana
  • Represented a publicly traded offshore services provider in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed by a public energy company. The confirmed Chapter 11 plan resulted in Kean Miller’s client being paid in full, In re ATP Oil & Gas Corporation, Southern District of Texas
  • Initiated an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy case for a fast food franchisee with 25+ locations on behalf of a consortium of lenders. We worked with the franchisor and the Chapter 11 Trustee to implement a sale process that resulted in our lenders’ collateral (franchise restaurants) being sold on a going-concern basis and our lenders’ claims being paid in full, including post-petition interest and attorneys’ fees, In re Fundamental Provisions, Middle District of Louisiana
  • Represented a distressed debt investor in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed by self-storage business to stop a foreclosure. After we defeated the attempted cram-down plan, the case concluded with a sale of the purchased note for a favorable return on investment
  • Represented pre-petition and DIP Lender in Chapter 11 cases for motor manufacturer and for offshore service company

Bankruptcy & Commercial Litigation

  • Successfully enforced discharge orders and channeling injunctions that protect clients and their predecessors-in-interest from liability for personal-injury and property-damage claims addressed in completed bankruptcy cases, including removing state-court cases to federal court when necessary to enforce a bankruptcy injunction
  • Successfully represented lenders, vendors, contractual counterparties, and partners (actual and alleged) to debtors in contested matters and adversary proceedings in business bankruptcy cases. Recent engagements include bankruptcy cases in the construction, financial services, healthcare, offshore energy, and petrochemical industries
  • Successfully represented many creditors sued for the return of preferential payments or alleged “fraudulent transfers” ― payments received before a debtor files for bankruptcy
  • Obtained a favorable decision on the value of mortgaged real estate after a full trial. The Court’s valuation decision effectively blocked the debtor’s ability to cram-down a plan over our client’s objection
Education

Eric earned his B.A. in Political Science from Emory University in 1995. He earned his J.D., with honors, from The University of Texas School of Law in 1999. In law school, Eric was an advocate on UT Law's National Mock Trial Team and served as an associate editor for the Texas Review of Law and Politics.

Admissions
  • Admitted, Louisiana, 2005; Texas, 1999; All United States District Courts in Louisiana; United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas; United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit; United States District Court and Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado
Memberships
  • Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Texas, and American Bar Associations; Louisiana Bankers Association (Bank Counsel Section); American Bankruptcy Institute (Fifth Circuit Editor, The Volo Project) (Circuit Court Opinion First Responder); Louisiana Bar Foundation; Turnaround Management Association; DAYL Foundation
Articles, Publications and Presentations

Eric is regularly asked to speak at continuing education seminars and other venues. Recent presentations include:

  • Improper Purposes/How To Show A Proper Purposes In Filing Chapter 11, Fifth Circuit Bankruptcy Bench-Bar Conference
  • Acquiring Assets Without Liabilities: Using Bankruptcy (and Other Strategies) to Minimize Successor Liability in M&A Transactions
  • Buying or Selling a Company in Distress
  • Minimizing Liability Risks in Distressed M&A Transactions (with Linda Perez Clark)
  • Bankruptcy Basics for Litigators, Baton Rouge Bar Association CLE (2014)
  • Top 10-ish Differences Between Louisiana and Texas Law: Contracts & Torts
  • Document Retention and Related Electronic Discovery Issues
  • Protecting Your Company from Financial Risks of Contracts in Troubled Times
  • When the Tenant or Landlord Files Bankruptcy and Ethics in Landlord-Tenant Law
  • Basics of Bankruptcy and Contracts
  • Document Retention and Destruction in Louisiana
  • Guest Lecturer, E.J. Ourso College of Business, Louisiana State University

Eric's more recent publications include:

Community Service
  • Member, Children’s Sermon Team, First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge
  • Board of Directors, Capital Area Alliance for the Homeless
  • Pro Bono Volunteer and Holiday Star Committee Member, Baton Rouge Bar Association
  • Former Director, Board Chairman, and Volunteer, Youth Oasis (homeless shelter for teenagers)
  • Former Director, Riverbend Homeowners Association
  • Former Director, Louisiana School for the Deaf Foundation
  • Former Director, Dallas Area Young Lawyers