At “Meatfest,” the judge and the lawyers were all smiles. Judge David R. Jones, who had worked for years to make Houston a destination for high-dollar bankruptcy litigation, can be seen in an October 2022 photo huddled at the barbecue with local attorneys who brought cases before him and also formed a cooking crew. Among them is Elizabeth Freeman, who had known Jones for years, clerked for him—and had an intimate relationship with him.