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The U.S. Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog is opposing a request to add more trade creditors to a committee in the National Rifle Association’s chapter 11 case, saying the organization has said it expects to pay its creditors in full, Reuters reported. U.S. Trustee William Neary said in an objection filed on Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas that the unsecured creditors’ committee it appointed earlier in the NRA’s chapter 11 case adequately represents all types of unsecured creditors. Neary urged U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale to reject the motion from creditor Membership Marketing Partners LLC, which was filed last week.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is showing up in a special role in the National Rifle Association’s tangled bankruptcy case as the gun-rights group faces challenges over its decision to seek court protection, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The NRA on Wednesday filed court papers seeking permission to hire Kirkland as special litigation counsel after it said that lawsuits drove it to file for bankruptcy. New York has accused the NRA of allegedly misusing charitable funds, adding to a number of other legal fights over alleged mismanagement. Managing the litigation is the chief goal of the bankruptcy case, the NRA has said. Some Kirkland partners, including former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, have handled Second Amendment matters for the NRA for years as part of its business with the gun rights organization. The bankruptcy rules being invoked to tap Kirkland as a special litigation counsel limit the purposes for which the law firm could work, and indicate it won’t be involved in restructuring the organization. The move to hire Kirkland as a special litigator in chapter 11 comes after federal bankruptcy watchdogs challenged the qualifications of the NRA’s longtime lead law firm, Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, to serve as special counsel in the bankruptcy case for work on matters different than Kirkland would.

The Justice Department’s bankruptcy monitor wants the National Rifle Association’s go-to lawyers barred from representing the gun-rights group in its chapter 11 case, citing “disqualifying conflicts” and previous allegations of billing improprieties, the Wall Street Journal reported. Brewer Attorneys & Counselors, a law firm that has represented the NRA in court and administrative proceedings across the country, isn’t suitable to be part of the crew of court-supervised lawyers handling the gun group’s bankruptcy, according to a Tuesday court filing by the U.S. Trustee, which oversees bankruptcy courts for the U.S. government. In addition to the NRA itself, the Brewer firm has also represented Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive officer and a prime target of litigation brought by New York’s attorney general alleging rampant financial misdeeds. LaPierre is now separately represented, according to an NRA spokesman. But the prior relationship between LaPierre and the Brewer firm makes it “highly unlikely” that as the NRA’s counsel the Brewer firm would look into or advocate for any claims the group may have against him, the U.S. Trustee said. “The statements in this legal filing, like others, reflect a misinformed view of the Brewer firm, its billings and its advocacy for the NRA,” said Charles L. Cotton, first vice president of the NRA. “I, and all the officers, fully support the work the firm is doing, the results achieved, and the value of its services. As we have stated before, this relationship has been reviewed, vetted and approved,” he said.

The New York attorney general called for the dismissal of the National Rifle Association’s bankruptcy, alleging it was filed to escape state oversight, Bloomberg News reported. The case is improper because the NRA has openly stated that the gun rights organization is “in its strongest financial condition in years,” New York said in a filing on Friday in bankruptcy court in Texas. The chapter 11 was also brought in bad faith to avoid New York’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve it, the state said. The NRA is “essentially fleeing or seeking an end run around a pending regulatory enforcement action in New York,” the state said in the filing. The lawsuit filed last year by New York Attorney General Letitia James alleges the NRA diverted charitable donations for years to enrich the organization’s top executives in violation of laws governing nonprofits. The state in its filings also took aim at NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, who it claims fleeced the gun rights organization. LaPierre has disputed New York’s allegations. LaPierre, who was among the signers of the group’s bankruptcy petition, “is accused of looting the NRA, yet he has made the determination and signed the petitions in an effort to use the bankruptcy court to remove the NRA from regulatory oversight,” the state said in its filings.