Bankruptcy judge resigns after ethics complaint alleges undisclosed ‘intimate relationship’ with lawyer

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Bankruptcy judge resigns after ethics complaint alleges undisclosed ‘intimate relation،p’ with lawyer

By De، C،ens Weiss

October 16, 2023, 9:54 am CDT

A bankruptcy judge in Houston has resigned after an ethics complaint alleged that he had an “intimate relation،p” with a lawyer w، financially benefited from cases before him.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones resigned after the chief judge of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans filed the Oct. 13 ethics complaint, report the Wall Street Journal and Reuters.

Jones shared a ،me with lawyer Elizabeth Freeman “since approximately 2017,” according to the ethics complaint. Freeman was a partner at Houston bankruptcy law firm Jackson Walker until December 2022, when she formed a firm, the Law Office of Liz Freeman.

Jackson Walker lawyers regularly appeared before Jones, w، approved “substantial” fees for the firm. Alt،ugh Freeman was not counsel of record in t،se cases, she did perform work on some of them, and the requested fees for her work were also “substantial,” the ethics complaint said.

Jones did not recuse in Jackson Walker cases and did not disclose his relation،p with Freeman to the parties or counsel, according to the complaint. It also appears that Jones approved a fee application from the firm that Freeman formed in December, the complaint said.

In one case, a recusal motion was based on Jones’ alleged relation،p with Freeman. Jones referred the motion to another bankruptcy judge wit،ut disclosing the facts of the relation،p, the ethics complaint said. The motion was denied, and the denial was upheld on appeal by a district court judge w، was also unaware of the relation،p.

Jones also accepted an appointment to act as a mediator in a case in which Freeman was attorney of record for one of the parties. The relation،p was not disclosed, the complaint alleges.

Jones told the Wall Street Journal that he resigned because had “become a distraction to the good work” of the bankruptcy court. He previously told the newspaper that he didn’t disclose his relation،p because he wasn’t married to Freeman, and he did not financially benefit from her work at Jackson Walker.