Am I My Colleagues’ Keeper When It Comes to Disclosing Connections?

Abstract

In late 2023, news stories picked up stories about a lawsuit alleging that Bankruptcy Judge David Jones of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas had been hearing cases in which his live-in romantic partner was appearing as counsel. The Fifth Circuit began disciplinary proceedings, and Judge Jones resigned from the bench. The scandal has affected more than just these two people: it implicates law firms, and potentially implicates other lawyers or judges who might have known more than they were saying. This article explores who had a duty to disclose this particular “connection,” and under what authority.

Keywords: David Jones, Elizabeth Freeman, Jackson Walker, judicial disqualification, judicial recusal, judicial ethics, legal ethics, bankruptcy ethics, bankruptcy, Rule 2014, Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 2014

JEL Classification: k00, k10, k19, k2, k20, k22, k29, k30, k39, k4, k40, k41, k42, k49