Jon T. Pearson

Jon T. Pearson is an associate in the Litigation Department and a member of the Bankruptcy, Reorganization and Capital Recovery; Commercial Litigation; Appellate; and Commercial Real Estate Recovery Groups. He concentrates his practice on representing and advising debtors, secured creditors, DIP lenders, creditors' committees, trustees, and purchasers in complex Chapter 11 reorganization and liquidation proceedings, including prepackaged and pre-negotiated restructurings.

Mr. Pearson also has significant experience litigating complex commercial issues, including contract interference, officer and director liability, and contract interpretation and enforcement; fraudulent conveyance and lender-liability cases; oppressed and dissenting shareholders actions; creditor remedies; and all aspects of bankruptcy litigation.

Representative Matters

• Represents the senior-secured lender, owed more than $209 million, in bankruptcy proceedings in Southern Arizona involving the acquisition of a major resort in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and one in Tucson. Trial has been scheduled on the client's motion for relief from the automatic stay, and confirmation of the jointly administered debtors' plan of reorganization.
• Represents a consortium of lenders that is owed more than $500 million for a construction loan used to develop a major commercial retail center in Southern Nevada. After successfully opposing a motion to enjoin the non-judicial foreclosure sale of the center, the client is now involved in extensive discovery concerning the opposing parties' claims for damages in excess of $100 million.
• Represented the Official Committee of Investors in the bankruptcy proceedings of a commercial real estate lender, which managed a $900 million loan portfolio with more than 1,700 investors. After several months of discovery and contested proceedings, the Committee successfully confirmed its reorganization plan.
• Represented the senior-secured lender, owed approximately $5 million, in bankruptcy proceedings for a Southern Arizona hotel. After prevailing at trial on the use of cash collateral, the debtor had no alternative but to stipulate to a structured dismissal of the Chapter 11 case.
• Represented a national contractor in mandamus proceedings against a local governmental agency, which the client alleged had twice improperly awarded a $112 million contract for a public-works project to the second-lowest bidder, bypassing the client, a nonunion contractor. After more than nine months of litigation, a federal district court instructed the agency to award the contract to the national contractor. The agency appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and after having oral argument before the Ninth Circuit, the parties reached a settlement.
• Successfully negotiated a complex, multiparty settlement resolving a lender-liability claim of more than $60 million that involved a loan for the acquisition of a non-gaming hotel in Las Vegas
• Assisted in the successful negotiation and resolution of a potentially $65 million claim in a complex Chapter 11 matter
• Successfully negotiated a $3.7 million settlement in a complex consolidated litigation matter involving a multiparty real estate transaction

Professional Activities

American Bar Association
State Bar of Nevada
Clark County Bar Association
American Bankruptcy Institute

Recognition & Accomplishments

Named among "Southern Nevada's Top 100 Attorneys," Nevada Business magazine's Legal Elite 2011

Named among Mountain States Super Lawyers "Rising Stars" 2012 in the area of bankruptcy

Publications

Drafted "Advanced Issues in Reorganization Concerning Single Asset Real Estate: Cases Involving Home Builders, Other Residential Projects, and Developers and Contractors," 2008 Spring Meeting of the ABA Section of Business Law, April 10, 2008

Contributor, research and drafting of "Arbitration and the Unauthorized Practice of Law," The Construction Lawyer, Winter 2007

Speaking Engagements

"Bankruptcy Developments for Clubs and Hotels," Colorado Law Institute-CLE International, 15th Annual Conference – Resort Development, Vail, Colo., December 8, 2011

California Western School of Law (J.D. 2006, cum laude)
Associate Editor, California Western Law Review; Recipient, Academic Achievement Award for Advanced Legal Skills & Writing; Recipient, Academic Merit Scholarship

Temple University (B.M. 2001)
Recipient, Temple Scholarship Grant

Nevada

U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit