On May 17, 2004, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit disqualified a judge from overseeing three contentious bankruptcies (filed by Owens Corning, W.R. Grace & Co., and USG Corp. in the face of massive numbers of asbestos-liability claims) because he hired advisors with impermissible conflicts of interest. The decision was a victory for WLF, which filed three separate briefs urging that Judge Alfred Wolin be removed from the case. His highly-compensated advisors are plaintiffs’ attorneys who represent asbestos claimants in other bankruptcy proceedings; the appeals court agreed with WLF that the close relationship between the judge and his advisors created an appearance of partiality that required the judge’s disqualification.