Bankruptcy Chief Rodriguez Mulls JW’s Bid to Depose U.S. Trustee Epstein

Jackson Walker will, at a minimum, depose one current and one former employee of the U.S. trustee’s office in its quest to determine whether the bankruptcy watchdog knew about a secret romantic relationship between a former law firm partner and a then-sitting bankruptcy judge before the news became public.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eduardo V. Rodriguez made that decision during a nearly four-hour hearing in Houston that ended shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday. The U.S. trustee has identified 33 cases in which former judge David Jones served as judge or mediator in which Jackson Walker and its former partner Elizabeth Freeman were awarded fees totaling about $18 million — fees that the U.S. trustee is attempting to claw back. Jones resigned from the bench in October when the secret relationship was publicly reported. Freeman was asked to leave the partnership in 2021 after confessing to the firm the relationship existed.