Houston bankruptcy court rejected a request from creditors of hand-sanitizer maker 4E Brands to disqualify Judge Marvin Isgur from ruling on a fee dispute involving the company’s law firm, saying no evidence of bias was established, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The creditors of 4E Brands, whose products included Blumen Hand Sanitizer and Assured Hand Sanitizer, are seeking the return of more than $860,000 in legal fees it paid to law firm Jackson Walker since its 2022 bankruptcy. The case was overseen by former Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones who approved the hiring of Jackson Walker as bankruptcy counsel and also signed off on the fees charged. Jones resigned in October from the bench after his romantic relationship with former Jackson Walker bankruptcy lawyer Elizabeth Freeman became public. Creditors seeking a reversal of the fees had said that, while Freeman didn’t bill hours in the 4E Brands case, she benefited from the fees the company paid the law firm because she was a Jackson Walker equity partner. Judge Isgur took over several of Jones’s cases, including the 4E Brands case, when Jones stepped down.
