Brown Rudnick LLP and Paul Hastings LLP can’t represent a talc claimants’ committee for Johnson & Johnson’s bankrupt subsidiary unless they forgo around $5.6 million for services they provided to other creditors, the Justice Department’s bankruptcy unit said.

The law firms are owed “significant sums” for their representation of two other groups as part of previous bankruptcy attempts by J&J units, the US Trustee said in an objection filed Tuesday in US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The debts owed to the law firms give them an adverse interest to the official talc claimant committee in the bankruptcy of J&J’s holding unit Red River Talc LLC, which should disqualify them from representing the committee, the US Trustee said.

ハンター・J・シュコルニク of Napoli Shkolnik dismissed opposition from the US Trustee and Red River as "completely misplaced." Speaking personally rather than for the committee, he called unpaid bills a "non-issue" and stressed that denying the two bankruptcy firms' appointment would harm ovarian cancer victims they support.

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