Top US bankruptcy judge, under ethics review, steps back from major cases
By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK (Reuters) — U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston, who oversees more major Chapter 11 cases than any other U.S. judge, said on Friday that he is facing an ethics review over a previously undisclosed romantic relationship and is stepping down from handling large cases.
Jones said over the weekend that he has been in a years-long romantic relationship and shared a home with bankruptcy attorney Elizabeth Freeman, who had previously been a law clerk for him. Until recently, Freeman worked at Jackson Walker, a local law firm that filed many cases in Jones' Houston courthouse.
Jones said at a court hearing in the bankruptcy case of drilling company Arethusa Offshore that he is under investigation from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and that all his bankruptcy cases involving large companies would be assigned to other judges during the investigation.
«I hope that you can appreciate that the integrity of the process is simply more important than a single case and you have my genuine apologies for the inconvenience that I am causing,» Jones told the company's attorneys.
The 5th Circuit declined to comment about the ethics investigation but the Houston bankruptcy court updated its case assignment rules Friday to remove Jones from a two-judge panel that oversees all complex cases involving more than $200 million in debt.
Legal ethics experts have said that Jones should have disclosed the relationship or recused himself from cases involving Jackson Walker.
A spokesman for Jackson Walker said the firm consulted outside ethics counsel after learning about the romantic relationship in March 2021.
«From the time we first learned of this allegation Ms. Freeman was instructed
Read more on investing.com
