WDTX Chief Judge Removes Jackson Walker Bankruptcy Fee Cases from SDTX Chief Bankruptcy Judge

Chief U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Texas, Alia Moses, has taken control of the 34 bankruptcy cases where the U.S. Trustee is seeking to clawback millions in fees awarded to Dallas-based Jackson Walker. “This unique case nevertheless requires stiff measures. The need to reestablish public trust and confidence in the court system alone impels withdrawal in this highly unusual case,” she wrote.

April 10, 2025 Michelle Casady

Judge Moses to Decide Standing Issue in Ex-Judge Jones Related RICO Case

Roughly one month after deciding a bankruptcy judge should determine whether a former CEO can proceed with his lawsuit alleging he was the victim of a conspiracy carried out in proceedings before former bankruptcy judge David Jones, a federal judge changed her mind this week. 

April 10, 2025 Michelle Casady

Jackson Walker Reaches Another Bankruptcy Fee Settlement

In paperwork filed with the court Monday, the chief restructuring officer for 4E Brands North America told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez that the Dallas-based law firm has agreed to pay back $617,000 of what it was awarded for work on the bankruptcy case. 

April 8, 2025 Michelle Casady

Jackson Walker Reaches First of Potentially Several Settlements in Ex-Judge Jones Bankruptcy Fee Case

Jackson Walker issued a statement to The Lawbook indicating more settlements will be filed soon. “We have always said that we regret being misled in this matter by our former partner, and we have continued to proactively reach out to other parties to try to resolve this matter in a constructive fashion,” the statement reads.

April 4, 2025 Michelle Casady

Hooters Files For Chapter 11 Protection in NDTX

Hooters of America announced Monday night that it had entered a restructuring support agreement to sell its remaining company-owned Hooters locations to a specific group of its current franchisees. In conjunction with this move, Hooters of America and 29 other Hooters-affiliated debtors also announced that they had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Northern District of Texas. Lawyers from Ropes & Gray and Foley & Lardner are advising.

April 1, 2025 Nick Peck

Houston Judge Rejects $9B Bankruptcy Effort By J&J

Houston Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez ruled late Monday that multiple flaws require him to dismiss Johnson & Johnson’s third attempt to use the federal bankruptcy courts to rid itself of 90,000 cases filed across the country by women suing pharmaceutical giant for making and selling baby powder that they claim caused their ovarian and other gynecological cancers. In a 57-page opinion, Judge Lopez said his ruling to reject J&J’s efforts to create a separate subsidiary in Texas called Red River Talc for the sole purpose of funding a $9 billion resolution of its talc powder cancer litigation through the bankruptcy process was "not an easy one, [but] it is the right one.”

March 31, 2025 Mark Curriden

Vertical Farming Company Hires Sidley, Jefferies to Advise on Bankruptcy 

Plenty Unlimited Incorporated, a Wyoming-based vertical farming company, and six of its affiliated entities, announced Sunday that it had voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 protection in the Southern District of Texas.

March 25, 2025 Nick Peck

GWG Trustee Sues Holland & Knight for $148M Over Alleged Beneficient Fraud

The bankruptcy trustee appointed to recover funds for creditors in the GWG Holdings bankruptcy case has sued Holland & Knight for nearly $150 million for “knowing participation in a fraudulent looting scheme and associated criminal enterprise” that included Dallas-based financial services firm Beneficient and its founder and CEO Bradley Heppner. In a 156-page complaint filed Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the court-appointed trustee accuses longtime outside counsel Holland & Knight and one of its Dallas law partners of colluding with Heppner to “fraudulently induce” GWG to invest the $148.4 million to help BEN “stave off collapse” by repaying a senior lender.

March 2, 2025 Mark Curriden