Jackson Walker Fights DOJ’s Discovery Pursuit of Ethics Counsel

Jackson Walker LLP is fighting to protect communications with its ethics lawyers from a motion to turn over documents filed by the Justice Department’s bankruptcy watchdog, citing attorney-client privilege.

The discovery dispute is part of an effort by the US Trustee to challenge Jackson Walker’s fees in 33 bankruptcy cases involving former bankruptcy judge David R. Jones, who resigned from the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas last year after admitting to a relationship with a onetime Jackson Walker partner.

The Texas law firm previously provided the US Trustee with memos written by Holland & Knight LLP attorney Peter Jarvis about the romance between Jones and Elizabeth Freeman, who worked for Jackson Walker until late 2022. Jackson Walker hired Jarvis as ethics counsel when in 2021 it learned of the relationship.

Jackson Walker gave those memos to the US Trustee because they weren’t protected by attorney-client privilege, but other communications with Jarvis and another Portland-based Holland & Knight lawyer, Jacqueline Harvey, are protected, Jackson Walker said.

“The UST now seeks to use JW’s good faith actions to force Mr. Jarvis and Ms. Harvey to produce documents and reveal information at depositions that is protected by the attorney-client privilege,” Jackson Walker said in the Tuesday filing in the US District Court for the District of Oregon.

Holland & Knight and Jackson Walker fought the US Trustee’s discovery requests in the Southern District of Texas, and the US Trustee filed a motion to compel discovery earlier this month in the Oregon court.

The US Trustee is pursuing depositions of Harvey and Jarvis and document discovery of communications between Jackson Walker and Holland & Knight about the Jones-Freeman romance.

Attorney-client privilege didn’t apply to the memos that the firm previously provided because Jackson Walker waived that privilege when it sent the memos to Freeman’s attorney, the firm said.

“To put it simply—JW produced the Memos because it was obligated to under the Federal Rules,” it said. “JW would have preferred not to have produced those documents.”

Jarvis and Harvey objected in June to the discovery request, citing Jackson Walker’s assertion of attorney-client privilege. Jarvis is now retired.

Jackson Walker is represented by Black Helterline LLP and Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.

The case is Professional Fee Matters Concerning the Jackson Walker Law Firm, D. Or., No. 3:24-mc-00894-AB, 9/17/24.