{"id":1158,"date":"2023-10-13T20:04:17","date_gmt":"2023-10-13T20:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/business\/top-us-bankruptcy-judge-steps-aside-from-big-cases-amid-investigation\/"},"modified":"2023-10-13T20:04:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T20:04:17","slug":"top-us-bankruptcy-judge-steps-aside-from-big-cases-amid-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158","title":{"rendered":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description\"><span>Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=8052f24a-2ad1-4d0c-82ce-b1d88dcc2e86\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>A prominent US bankruptcy judge will step away from hearing large cases as a federal appeals court investigates his alleged failure to disclose a romantic relationship with a prominent bankruptcy lawyer.<\/p>\n<p>An order posted on Friday said cases classified as \u201ccomplex\u201d, or those with liabilities more than $200mn, assigned to David R Jones, the chief judge of the US bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas, will be transferred to other judges. <\/p>\n<p>Earlier, Jones revealed in a court hearing that media reports of the relationship \u201chas prompted an investigation by the Fifth Circuit that is ongoing\u201d, and that the appeals court requested he step aside from complex cases, according to an account of the remarks from Reorg Research. When reached for comment, Jones pointed back to his remarks in court. <\/p>\n<p>Jones, who joined the bench in 2011, had become an unlikely star of high-profile corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection cases. In recent years he oversaw a string of high-profile cases including Cineworld Group, Serta Simmons Bedding and Neiman Marcus.<\/p>\n<p>His relationship with Elizabeth Freeman \u2014 then a top lawyer at Houston firm Jackson Walker \u2014 was revealed in a lawsuit brought by Michael Van Deelen, who wanted to pursue a claim against oil services company McDermott International. Van Deelen wanted to litigate his claim in state court, but Jones, who was overseeing McDermott\u2019s 2020 bankruptcy, ruled he could not. <\/p>\n<p>Van Deelen alleged in his lawsuit that Jones was the domestic partner of Freeman, whose firm represented McDermott in its bankruptcy. He said that neither Jones nor Freeman disclosed the relationship, creating a potential conflict of interest that should have caused Jones to recuse himself from the bankruptcy. The lawsuit was first reported last week by Business Insider. <\/p>\n<p>Jones later confirmed his personal relationship to the Wall Street Journal but said that because Freeman, who had been a law clerk for Jones, never personally appeared in his court that he did not need to disclose their relationship.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years Houston has become a hub for major bankruptcies. Until a decade ago, most high-profile cases were filed in New York and Delaware. But in the first half of 2023, 16 of the 20 largest bankruptcy cases were filed in the Southern District of Texas, according to recent report from Cornerstone Research.<\/p>\n<p>US bankruptcy law gives companies wide latitude in selecting venues, and Jones marketed the Houston court as a destination for big restructurings, which would be assigned to either Jones or another judge, Marvin Isgur.<\/p>\n<p>Jones told the FT in 2022 that Houston had become a hub because of the legal and financial expertise of himself and Isgur and their willingness to be available to lawyers on nights and weekends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t like seeing my name in the newspaper. The goal was really to create a court that we could all be proud of,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI work very hard every day. My philosophy is that the case should never be about the judge. The case should be about the constituents in order to effectuate the right transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson Walker, frequently represents debtors in the Texas court, usually in tandem with a large national firm \u2014 often Kirkland &amp; Ellis \u2014 that leads the case. <\/p>\n<p>Some lawyers and legal scholars have raised worries about so-called \u201cjudge shopping\u201d and \u201cforum shopping\u201d in US corporate bankruptcies. Members of Congress have sought to change the law to force companies to file closer to their headquarters or core operations, though such legislation has yet to pass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8052f24a-2ad1-4d0c-82ce-b1d88dcc2e86\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. A prominent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"inFundPros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-wall.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Press Room\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Press Room\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Press Room\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff\"},\"headline\":\"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\"},\"wordCount\":610,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Business\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\",\"name\":\"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\",\"name\":\"Fintech Advance\",\"description\":\"Latest Finance and Tech News and Updates\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Fintech Advance\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png\",\"width\":409,\"height\":70,\"caption\":\"Fintech Advance\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff\",\"name\":\"Press Room\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Press Room\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros","og_description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge","og_url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158","og_site_name":"inFundPros","article_published_time":"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-wall.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Press Room","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Press Room","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158"},"author":{"name":"Press Room","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff"},"headline":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation","datePublished":"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158"},"wordCount":610,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Business"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158","name":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation | inFundPros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00","dateModified":"2023-10-13T20:04:17+00:00","description":"Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A prominent US bankruptcy judge","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?p=1158#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Top US bankruptcy judge steps aside from big cases amid investigation"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/","name":"Fintech Advance","description":"Latest Finance and Tech News and Updates","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#organization","name":"Fintech Advance","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/tech-logo.png","width":409,"height":70,"caption":"Fintech Advance"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/87f7e632b195ea95c91503d9281f5eff","name":"Press Room","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/avatar_user_1_1697230663-96x96.png","caption":"Press Room"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/infundpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infundpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}