Tom Girardi was not fired despite hundreds of complaints

The California State Bar admits to “serious failures” in its governance system, overlooking hundreds of complaints brought against disqualified attorney Tom Girardi.

“The handling of Girardi’s cases revealed serious flaws in the State attorney”
a system of discipline, failures that contributed to the distrust of the state’s bar skills
to fulfill our primary duty to protect society, “wrote chairman Ruben Duran on behalf of the Trust Council of the State Bar in a letter obtained by Page Six on Thursday.

Duran continued that there was no excuse for their treatment of Girardi.

“[He] caused irreparable damage to hundreds of its clients, and the State Bar could have done more to protect the public. We must never allow something like this to happen again. “

Along with the letter, the State Bar of California released details of 205 complaints, stating that 120 were about breaches of customer trust and the rest were about allegations ranging from failure to communicate with customers, non-performance, false statements to courts and customers, including other errors.

The agency also noted that three of these complaints were the ones that led to Girardi’s de facto exclusion. He was suspended from practicing law in California in March 2021 but was officially disqualified from practicing in July 2022, per online records for the State of Bar of California.

“Before Girardi’s release, he was never publicly rebuked by the Bar,” Duran admitted in the letter. “Thirteen other cases had previously been resolved by
non-public funds at the investigation stage, before or after the application. “

The California State Bar says it has taken steps to regain public confidence in the way they discipline lawyers in their state and continues to delve into Girardi’s complaints.

In the letter, the agency notes that it has investigated the already closed disciplinary cases involving Girardi, and has launched a comprehensive investigation into those who worked alongside a disgraced lawyer to determine whether the state attorney’s mishandling of his complaints was due to his “ties. “. “.

“Today’s disclosure is another step forward in increasing our commitment to protect society with greater impact, transparency and urgency,” Duran said. “The State Bar is committed to doing everything we can to prevent it from happening again.”

The honesty of the California State Bar is on its heels lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Times against agencies to make them more transparent.

The State Bar of California “initially fought” them, according to the newspaper, when they demanded access to Girardi’s file in court, but they changed their minds just last month.

LA Times attorney Kelli Sager said on Thursday in a publication that they would continue to press the California State Bar for more details on Girardi’s complaints as it was revealed that the records did not contain “any details – including the identity of people in Bar State. who was responsible for handling them – or details of the complaints themselves. ‘

Sager added: “This information must be disclosed to the public in order to evaluate its efficiency and the steps necessary to ensure that this kind of” major failure “does not happen again.”

Girardi, 83, and his now defunct company Girardi & Keese face a series of lawsuits for allegedly mishandling customer funds. Several victims claim the former attorney used the settlement money to finance the lavish lifestyle of his and broken-up wife Erika Jayne.

His former firm owes $ 101 million. However, with legal battles raging in court, Girardi reportedly has a separate battle with his health.

This once-respected lawyer was diagnosed with late Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in March 2021. A month earlier, his brother Robert had been appointed his conservator and now lives at the Belmont Village Senior Living in Burbank, California.