Talc Supplier’s Former Law Firms Lose Bid for Official Committee

Law firms that represented a defunct Berkshire Hathaway Inc.-affiliated talc supplier can address their interests through mediation without forming an official creditors’ committee, a bankruptcy judge ruled.

Fox Rothschild LLP along with other firms and advisers that worked for Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc. say they’re owed some $14 million, and want to have a bigger say in the company’s bankruptcy. In February, they asked the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey to appoint an official committee of general unsecured commercial creditors, raising concerns about how any settlement funds would be shared with tort claimants.

But Judge ...