A packed courtroom of bankruptcy attorneys and a few investors turned out for the first settlement hearings in the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler bankruptcy case, and many were there to protest the agreements. The settlements with George Levin, his Banyon investment funds, and investment adviser Michael Szafranski called for controversial “bar orders” to prohibit any pending or future Rothstein-related litigation against the settling parties

Rarely does anyone accuse the litigators at Quinn Emanuel of not being aggressive enough, but that’s essentially what attorneys representing Washington Mutual shareholders are saying in asking the judge hearing WaMu’s bankruptcy case for permission to investigate JPMorgan Chase’s acquisition of the bank. The investigation centers on allegations that JPMorgan torpedoed WaMu’s chances of finding another buyer in late 2008 by leaking confidential information and false rumors about WaMu’s finances, court records show.

Lehman Brothers and its lawyers at Weil, Gotshal & Manges sent a clear message this week to the judge hearing Lehman’s bankruptcy case: Make public the full report about Lehman’s demise. In a motion filed Monday by Weil’s Harvey Miller, Lehman says it has cooperated fully with the special examiner investigating the bank’s failure and has turned over more than 20 million pages of e-mail.

The Phoenix Coyotes bankruptcy case is shaping up to be the year’s landmark sports law case.