Judge Sets Deadline for Mediation in Jackson Walker’s Fee Battle

A federal judge is giving Jackson Walker LLP and the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog about one week to complete mediation over litigation alleging the firm failed to disclose an ex-partner’s romance with a former judge.

The case will proceed to an open trial if the Texas-based law firm and the US Trustee’s office fail to reach a settlement by 5 p.m. on July 15, according to an order issued Monday in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The mediation is the first attempt at a resolution the bankruptcy watchdog has agreed to since it filed a challenge in late 2023 over $23 million in fees Jackson Walker earned in cases involving ex-partner Elizabeth Freeman and former Houston bankruptcy judge David R. Jones.

Retired Boston bankruptcy judge Joan N. Feeney started mediating the dispute on June 16. The firm and the US Trustee agreed to mediate after a tense hearing in May where Judge Alia Moses said she’d lost patience with last-minute court filings and several settlements Jackson Walker struck with representatives of bankruptcy estates.

The US Trustee accused Jackson Walker of breaching its ethical duties by failing to disclose the relationship. Jackson Walker regularly represented clients in large bankruptcies before Jones.

The firm has maintained it acted appropriately when it learned of the romance.

Jones resigned in 2023 after the relationship was revealed. He had approved fees for the firm and, in some cases, for work Freeman individually performed. Jones also mediated several bankruptcies in which Jackson Walker or Freeman took part.

The US Trustee’s litigation against Jackson Walker has affected more than 30 large bankruptcy cases involving Jones and sparked separate civil litigation and a criminal probe. Freeman, who shared and owned a home with Jones for years, left Jackson Walker in late 2022.

The case In Re: Professional Fee Matters Concerning the Jackson Walker Law Firm, S.D. Tex., No. 23-04787, 7/7/25.