He was known for being the lawyer who took on some of the largest companies in the country to fight for the rights of the little guy. With his sentence of 87 months for wire fraud on June 3, 2025, the now-disbarred Tom Girardi may only have prison yard disputes to try to litigate in his future.
A sentence of over seven years for an 86-year-old man might seem excessive to some, but it pales when compared to the scope of Girardi's perfidy. Preying on the clients who trusted him, Girardi stole and embezzled tens of millions to support a lavish lifestyle and fund his wife's entertainment career.
It's quite a fall for the attorney who was once a member of the State Bar of California's Trial Hall of Fame and part of the legal team involved in the settlement made famous in the film "Erin Brockovich." While he'd rather be remembered as the first California attorney to win an award of over $1 million in a medical malpractice case, it's Girardi's betrayal of his legal ethics that will be his legacy.
The Bigger They Are...
A graduate of Loyola Law School (where he also taught), Girardi spent decades making a name for himself as a successful tort attorney specializing in cases involving large and powerful companies. In addition to a "Trial Lawyer of the Year" award, Girardi's accolades included being named a Top Lawyer of the Decade and an appointment as the first trial lawyer on the California Judicial Council.
His law firm, Girardi Kreese, seemed like a successful operation. Girardi's wife Erika was one of the stars of the reality series "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills." With his high-profile cases and their extravagant lifestyle, few suspected what Girardi was doing in the shadows.
According to court documents, in 2010 Girardi began engaging in a type of Ponzi scheme. After winning judgments for clients that were deposited into the accounts of Girardi Kreese, Girardi and one of his employees would delay or attempt to avoid making payments to the victims. When they could no longer stall a particular client, they'd use funds from a different settlement to appease them.
In some instances, Girardi would take things a step further. He told the badly-burned survivor of a gas explosion that had claimed the life of the victim's girlfriend that the settlement was for $7.25 million, when in reality it was $53 million. Lawsuits and other legal charges began to mount as Girardi's victims uncovered his fraudulent behavior.
Things fell apart completely for Girardi in 2022. With his firm forced into bankruptcy and his wife filing for divorce, he was arrested in the Bahamas on multiple counts of wire fraud. After being disbarred, most of the organizations that had given him awards withdrew their endorsements.
A Lot of Unrecovered Money
Girardi was found guilty of four counts of wire fraud by a federal jury in Los Angeles on August 27, 2024. His co-defendant, former Girardi Keese CFO Christopher Kazuo Kamon, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to two counts of wire fraud. Sentenced to 121 months, he has also pleaded guilty to similar charges in Chicago in a case involving Girardi's son-in-law. Girardi was dismissed from the Chicago proceedings after his sentencing in Los Angeles.
Part of Girardi's restitution is to pay $2.3 million to his victims, a far cry from the over $100 million in claims against Girardi Kreese. Reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, Girardi's brother has served as his permanent conservator since 2021. While Girardi is slated to spend the rest of his days as an elderly convict behind bars, it's unlikely most of his victims will ever recoup the settlements he stole from them
Related Resources
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- Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Surrenders Law License in Face of 10 Count Complaint (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
