Just because I came across it, I felt it was worth sharing.
In October 2023, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones resigned from the bench. A Houston judge frequently touted for the sheer volume of bankruptcy cases his court handled, Jones stepped down after reports surfaced that he engaged in a romantic relationship with Elizabeth Freeman, an attorney who worked on bankruptcy cases before him.
The story of a star bankruptcy court judge secretly canoodling and living with one of the lawyers who filed cases for his courtroom—and who had previously worked for him as a law clerk—sent shockwaves throughout legal circles. It also has resulted in mounds of litigation.
The latest development is that, per The Oregonian, U.S. District Judge Amy Baggio in Oregon has ruled that Jackson Walker, the Dallas-based law firm where Freeman was a bankruptcy partner until 2022, must hand over communications “it shared with two Portland ethics lawyers hired for advice on how to handle fallout” from the romantic relationship revelations.
The ruling regards an investiation being conducted by the U.S. Trustee’s office into 33 bankruptcy cases conducted in Jones’ court. The federal investigators are probing whether there was “secret discussions or coordination between Jones and bankruptcy professionals” in those cases, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
Jackson Walker had initially objected to handing over the documents in question. But, according to The Oregonian, Baggio ruled that Jackson Walker “waived privilege repeatedly and brazenly” by sharing communications with an outside party, so the U.S. Trustee’s office should have access to it. The Oregonian reports that Jackson Walker and Portland-based attorneys Jacqueline Harvey and Peter Jarvis shared communication between 2021 and ’22.
Baggio said Jackson Walker and the Portland attorneys must submit the material in 21 days.
See here for the background; there’s a very brief summary here as well. Kudos to story author Timothy Malcolm for the inclusion of “canoodling”, a word we could all endeavor to use more often. I doubt I’m going to follow this closely, but it’s a relatively slow news period and as I said, I happened to come across this update, so why not.