But while presenting himself as a premier plaintiffs’ lawyer, the man who helped make Erin Brockovich famous was said to be helping himself to some of the millions of dollars he’d won for others to support a lavish lifestyle including an opulent estate filled with antiques, art and finery.
Girardi regularly used client trust funds “as his personal piggy bank,” said one of two bankruptcy trustees sorting through the more than $700 million in claims filed against the man and his now shuttered law firm. The fund into which client settlement monies are held in trust is at least $23 million short, despite Girardi’s $41 million in deposits, the firm’s trustee Elissa Miller said in court papers.
Over just one decade in his five-decade career, Girardi pilfered at least $14 million in settlement funds alone for himself and for his celebrity ex-wife, Erika Jayne Girardi, the trustee alleged.
In December 2020, the attorney and the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star were accused in a Chicago federal lawsuit of embezzling money meant for those Girardi Keese LLP was representing in litigation over the 2018 crash of a Lion Air Boeing 737 off the coast of Indonesia. A contempt finding soon followed.
The ensuing downfall was swift. The man and his firm were hauled into bankruptcy. Among the petitioners filing an involuntary…
