A 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opinion that one former bankruptcy judge calls “scary” for lawyers requires Dallas-based Winstead to disgorge up to $500,000 in attorney fees the firm received for its work on the restructuring of a restaurant chain that filed for bankruptcy.
In an Aug. 28 decision in Wooley v. Faulkner, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit concluded that the doctrine of equitable mootness did not apply to attorneys representing clients in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.