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Back in October, the bankruptcy world was rocked with the resignation of Judge David Jones, one of the top bankruptcy judges in the nation. The reason behind the sudden move? A little matter of ethics. Judge Jones never disclosed he was in a relationship with Elizabeth Freeman, a now former bankruptcy attorney at Jackson Walker LLP, and was facing a Fifth Circuit ethics inquiry.
In the wake of his resignation, the ethics complaint against the now former judge disappeared. Leaving your job is a common way for judges to get out of uncomfortable ethical questions. The inquiry into Kavanaugh’s behavior disappeared because he left the D.C. Circuit when he got elevated to the Supreme Court. The inquiry into allegations of sexual harassment in the chambers of once-prominent Ninth Circuit judge Alex Kozinski were halted, mid-controversy, when Kozinski handed in his retirement papers. The late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry pulled a similar move when she retired from the Third Circuit, ending all hope that an ethics inquiry would reveal whether the judge was involved in tax evasion.
The relationship between Freeman and Jones came to public attention due to a lawsuit regarding the bankruptcy of energy company McDermott International that questioned Jones’s impartiality.
As reported by Reuters:
In his lawsuit, former McDermott shareholder Michael Van Deelen argued that Jones violated his rights when he approved a bankruptcy plan that wiped out existing equity shares in the company. Van Deelen further alleged that Jones was biased towards McDermott, which was represented by Jackson Walker.
But Jones is looking to squash this lawsuit, hiding behind his judicial role.
Jones, who is representing himself, said in a December 29 filing that the lawsuit should be dismissed because judicial immunity protects him from lawsuits related to his court orders. He also argued that Van Deelen’s claims about unfair treatment should be pursued through an appeal of the ruling he made in the McDermott bankruptcy.
Van Deelen is currently appealing that decision, and his separate lawsuit against him is an “inappropriate collateral attack” on that process, Jones wrote.
The matter of Jones’s romantic relationship, and any associated bias, was not addressed in the filing. Much better (for the former judge) to make this a dry legal question and avoid the sordid details of his relationship status.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.
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