Bankruptcy judge marvin isgur

HOUSTON – In Houston’s close-knit bankruptcy court, judges David R. Jones and Marvin Isgur often stood in lockstep. Former law partners, they transformed Houston from a backwater into a boomtown for high-dollar bankruptcies.

Isgur boasted, with a father’s pride, of how Jones revolutionized the Southern District of Texas’ bankruptcy system. He hired Jones out of law school, worked with him for years in private practice, and has called Jones his “stubborn adopted son.”

And now that Jones, 62, has resigned following the disclosure he approved millions in legal fees for a firm employing his live-in girlfriend, it will be Isgur who decides in many cases whether that firm can keep those fees.

The US Trustee in Texasmoved to clawback at least $13 million from the firm, Jackson Walker, and Isgur is the judge slated to decide many of those fee disputes.

He has already gone on record questioning whether the US Trustee has the legal power to take back Jackson Walker’s fees.

“It looks like people are protecting themselves,” said former bankruptcy judge Bruce Markell, a professor of bankruptcy law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. “It does not look good.”

Even in a district where conflicts of interest have drawn national attention, the specter of Jones’ longtime mentor sitting in judgment of the hometown ethics controversystrikes some observers as alarming.

Read More: Sex, Secrets Trigger Downfall of Star Texas Bankruptcy Judge

Ultimately, the chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas will decide whether matters shift to another court.

For months, Houston’s chief bankruptcy judge, Eduardo V. Rodriguez, has resisted the government’s efforts to move the dispute.

While Rodriguez is handling pre-trial issues, Isgur and fellow bankruptcy Judge Christopher M. Lopez remain poised to oversee the bulk of trials and disputes over fees and sanctions in the cases involving J

Full Name

Judge Marvin Isgur

Company/Firm

US Bankruptcy Court Southern District of Texas

Speaker Bio

Marvin Isgur has been a United States Bankruptcy Judge since February 1, 2004. He was appointed to a second term as a Bankruptcy Judge, which began on February 1, 2018. Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. appointed Judge Isgur to the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management. He is the sole bankruptcy judge appointed to the Committee by the Chief Justice. Judge Isgur was recently reappointed to a second term on the Judicial Conference Committee.

Judge Isgur currently presides over more than 4,000 bankruptcy cases. He has been instrumental in reforming consumer bankruptcy practices and rules both in the Southern District of Texas and nationally.

Judge Isgur is one of two judges who is assigned complex bankruptcy cases in the Southern District of Texas. In that capacity, he has presided over multiple bankruptcy cases with liabilities exceeding one billion dollars. In 2018, he was assigned the largest bankruptcy case filed in the United States.

In 1974, Judge Isgur received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Houston. In 1978 he received his MBA, with honors, from Stanford University. After earning his MBA, Judge Isgur served as an executive with a large real estate development company in Houston. In 1987, Judge Isgur returned to the University of Houston to attend law school. Judge Isgur was awarded his law degree, with high honors, in 1990 and began representing debtors and trustees in chapter 11 and 7 bankruptcy cases until his appointment as a Bankruptcy Judge. Judge Isgur is also one of a handful of attorneys in the nation with experience representing various parties in chapter 9 bankruptcy cases.

Judge Isgur has written over 500 memorandum opinions. He was one of the first judges to issue opinions interpreting the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.

Judge Isgur was a founding me