Top US bankruptcy judge steps back from major cases under ethics review

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones in Houston, who has overseen more major Chapter 11 cases than any other U.S. judge since 2016, said on Friday that he was stepping down from overseeing large cases and faces an ethics review over a previously undisclosed romantic relationship. Jones admitted over the weekend that he has been in a years-long romantic relationship and shared a home with bankruptcy attorney Elizabeth Freeman, who until recently worked at a law firm that filed many cases in Jones' Houston courthouse. "That media attention has prompted an investigation" by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.