If approved, Perez would join his former Weil Gotshal law partner, Judge Christopher Lopez, as one of the bankruptcy judges handling big cases in Houston.

The former McDermott International shareholder who exposed the secret relationship between a former Jackson Walker partner and the Houston bankruptcy judge who handled the McDermott restructuring is a “professional litigant” with a history of “perjured testimony and falsification of evidence” who has no legitimate legal claims against Jackson Walker. Those arguments were part of a 46-page document filed Friday by Houston trial lawyer Rusty Hardin, who represents Jackson Walker, seeking to dismiss the federal racketeering and fraud lawsuit filed against his client and others by McDermott investor Michael Van Deelen who seeks millions of dollars in damages, alleging the firm hid and profited from the romantic relationship between Elizabeth Freeman, a Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner between 2018 and 2022, and former Bankruptcy Judge David Jones.

The decision to keep secret the relationship between then-U.S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge David Jones and Jackson Walker bankruptcy partner Elizabeth Freeman was made by Judge Jones in 2020 at the start of the multibillion-dollar corporate restructuring of McDermott International, a lawyer for Freeman stated in court documents filed late Monday in federal court in Houston. Prominent Houston corporate bankruptcy lawyer Tom Kirkendall, who represents Freeman in the ongoing litigation related to Freeman’s relationship with Judge Jones, wrote that neither Jackson Walker nor Kirkland & Ellis were aware that the couple were living together or were romantically involved and that the federal lawsuit against them should be dismissed.

Kirkland & Ellis lawyers had no knowledge that former Houston Bankruptcy Judge David Jones was having a secret romantic affair with a former partner at a Texas law firm that served as its co-counsel in dozens of corporate restructurings and that Kirkland cannot be held accountable for the ethical lapses of the judge in those cases, according to court documents filed Friday. Lawyers for Kirkland, which include David Beck, argue that the Chicago-founded law firm should be dismissed from a federal racketeering lawsuit that accuses Kirkland and its co-counsel at Dallas-based Jackson Walker of exploiting the relationship between Judge Jones and former Jackson Walker partner Elizabeth Freeman. Jackson Walker has hired Rusty Hardin and Judge Jones is being represented by McKool Smith.