01
H.C.
Jones, III
Member
Office 410.528.2975
Email hjones@coleschotz.com
Joelene Novak
|Legal Practice Assistant
410.230.0660
ext. 2871
H.C. is a member in both the firm’s Bankruptcy & Corporate Restructuring and Litigation Departments.
H.C. represents businesses confronting financial distress and other complex legal challenges. He prioritizes his clients’ business objectives and always seeks resolution at the earliest appropriate stage, informally where possible, but places great value on technical proficiency and creativity in court. His substantive and procedural knowledge and diverse experience give his clients a tactical advantage, particularly in contentious situations, regardless of the nature and scope of the case.
Experience
As part of his bankruptcy and restructuring practice, H.C. has represented debtors, secured and unsecured creditors, litigation trusts, federal and state receivers, and other interested parties in connection with chapter 11 and chapter 7 cases, out-of-court restructurings, and sales. H.C. also has significant experience handling large-scale preference portfolios and other adversary proceedings, including breach of fiduciary duty and fraudulent transfer claims.
As part of his litigation practice, H.C. has represented clients in administrative proceedings and in state and federal trial courts across the country in connection with disputes and investigations arising from all manner of commercial contracts, creditors’ rights disputes, shareholder disputes and business torts, employment discrimination claims, real estate and landlord-tenant claims and others.
H.C. is also a member of the firm’s Management Advisory Committee and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
Representative Matters
Some of H.C.’s recent notable matters include:
Bankruptcy/Restructuring
- Currently representing Tessemae’s LLC, a leading all-natural, organic salad dressing manufacturer and wholesaler, in its Chapter 11 case in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.
- Currently representing Premier Kings, Inc. et al. (in AL) which involved the sale of more than 170 Burger King franchise locations in 5 states.
- Currently representing the Liquidating Trustee of the VG Liquidating Trust in connection with an action in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware to recover excess fees paid to the U.S. Trustee Program following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Siegel v. Fitzgerald, 142 S. Ct. 1770 (2022) that the U.S. Trustee Program’s 2017 Fee increase was enacted in violation of the Bankruptcy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
- Represented Premier Cajun Kings LLC, a Popeyes franchisee with more than 20 QSRs, in its Chapter 11 case in the Unites States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
- Represented South Moon Under in connection with the sale of substantially all its assets under UCC Article 9.
- Represented the Litigation Trustee for the Think Finance Litigation Trust in connection with a post-confirmation fraudulent transfer and preference portfolio including claims against dozens of defendants, recovering in excess of $100 million.
- Represented the Creditors’ committee in Eventide Credit Acquisitions, LLC.
- Represented the Federal Equity Receiver in connection with the sale of Independence Lumber’s sawmills and timber business in North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. The sale won the Global M&A Network’s Community Impact Restructuring award and was celebrated by the Governor of Virginia for saving the jobs of employees at Grayson County, Virginia’s largest employer.
- Represented the Federal Equity Receiver in connection with the $37.5 million public auction sale of the assets of AgTech Scientific, which included a 1.87 million sq. ft. greenhouse and warehouse facility in Kentucky.
Litigation
- Represented a major American beer company in a multimillion dollar Superfund suit in the District of Maryland and secured dismissal on the grounds of lack of personal jurisdiction.
- Represented a national sports franchise in arbitration before a JAMS arbitrator in connection with millions of dollars in claims for breach of contract and breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, securing a favorable award of de minimis damages.
- Secured dismissal of multimillion dollar wrongful death claims alleged against a civil engineer in connection with the 2016 and 2018 Ellicott City, Maryland flooding.
- Secured summary judgment on multimillion dollar wrongful death claims alleged against the owner of a large apartment complex in Prince George’s County, Maryland following the shooting deaths of several individuals. Summary judgment was later upheld on appeal in Davis v. Regency Lane, LLC, 249 Md. App. 187, 217, 245 A.3d 115, 133 (2021), cert. denied, 474 Md. 638, 255 A.3d 172 (2021).
- Secured No Cause determination and dismissal by the EEOC and MCCR of many employment discrimination claims.
Networks & Affiliations
H.C. is an active member of the Turnaround Management Association, Maryland Bankruptcy Bar Association, American Bankruptcy Institute, and Federal Bar Association.
H.C. is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he earned a concentration in Business Law, and is a graduate of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA, where he earned a B.S.E.T. with a focus on Electromechanical Systems and a minor in Engineering Management. During law school, H.C. was a member of the University of Baltimore Law Review, a member of the National Appellate Advocacy Moot Court Team, a Rule 16 Attorney in the Tax Clinic, and an intern for the Honorable Judge David E. Rice of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland.
Prior to beginning his career as an attorney, H.C. was a Petty Officer Second Class in the United States Navy and served as the production supervisor of the calibration laboratory onboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, maintaining and repairing the ship’s electronic, mechanical, and nuclear test equipment.