Page 1
California Supreme Court Disbars Girardi
Orders $2.3 Million Be Paid in Restitution
By
a METNEWS Staff Writer
|
|
|
GIRARDI |
Thomas V. Girardi, once a prominent and wealthy Los Angeles personal injury attorney with a pipeline to top-level government officials, and with insiders at the State Bar protecting him as complaints of misconduct came in, was disbarred by the California Supreme Court yesterday.
The action was expected. The State Bar Court on Jan. 10 “recommended that Thomas Vincent Girardi, State Bar Number 36603, be disbarred from the practice of law in California and that his name be stricken from the roll of attorneys.” Now a conservatee and lacking funds, he did not contest the recommendation.
Girardi was ordered to pay $2,282,507 in client funds he pocketed, plus 10 percent and $5,000 in sanctions and costs. Of that amount, $2 million was to go to four minors whose parents died in an air crash.
The former lawyer used client funds to buy gifts for his trophy wife, who is divorcing him, and on other extravagances.
However, his inability to pay is a certainty; he is in bankruptcy.
State Bar Chief Trial Counsel George Cardona issued a statement saying:
“Thomas Girardi has done significant and profound harm to many and while his disbarment does not minimize those impacts, it is an acknowledgement of the people he victimized. As an agency, public protection is at the core of our mission, and we are taking the necessary steps to ensure what occurred does not happen again.”
The State Bar has hired a law firm to probe how some persistent violators of ethics rules, such as Girardi, were able to escape disciplinary actions. State Bar Board of Trustees Chair Ruben Duran has vowed:
“Mark our words: we will go wherever the evidence leads us,” adding:
“The State Bar Board leadership and staff take very seriously the immense harm done by Thomas Girardi to innocent victims. We have been proactively doing everything in our power to learn from the past and do better in the future to prevent harms like this from recurring.
“This necessarily includes assessing whether intentional wrongdoing by anyone associated with the State Bar may have influenced how complaints against Girardi were handled.”
Girardi was disbarred in the federal courts on Aug. 20.
Copyright 2022, Metropolitan News Company