An unsigned, one-page bombshell of a letter made the rounds at Kirkland & Ellis, the world’s largest law firm by revenue. It threatened havoc for the firm and others that did business before the most powerful bankruptcy judge in the U.S.
The letter alleged that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones, chief of the bankruptcy court in Houston, was in a romantic relationship with Elizabeth Freeman, a Texas attorney who as Kirkland’s co-counsel helped the firm shepherd multibillion-dollar cases in Jones’s courtroom.
The intimate relationship was the reason Freeman and her law firm, Jackson Walker, were often brought in to represent large corporations, knowing they would likely have “the judge in their favor,” according to the letter, which surfaced in March 2021.
Such a conflict of interest would sink Jones and upend his work elevating Houston’s bankruptcy court to the nation’s top tier. It also would taint judgments affecting hundreds of thousands of employees, investors, vendors and others.
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