Sorrento Shareholders Lose Bid to Probe Judge Romance Knowledge

Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. shareholders lack grounds to formally investigate the company’s brief use of a lawyer romantically involved with the judge who previously oversaw its bankruptcy case.

Judge Christopher Lopez of the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Monday denied the shareholders’ request for a targeted investigation into whether Sorrento’s advisers knew of, and potentially sought to exploit, the previously secret relationship between former judge David R. Jones and attorney Liz Freeman.

When considering the totality of the 10-month-old Chapter 11 case, the call for an exam into Latham & Watkins LLP and other Sorrento advisers ...