The State Bar of California forged doubt Friday on troubled lawyer Tom Girardi’s analysis of Alzheimer’s illness, suggesting it was a potential case of malingering and certain igniting a battle over his psychological competency.
Attorneys for the bar raised the questions in a Superior Courtroom submitting that additionally revealed the company is getting ready to maneuver towards Girardi’s license. The bar regulates attorneys in California.
Bar investigations and disciplinary proceedings are usually confidential, however the company disclosed “imminent” expenses towards Girardi in an try to stave off conservatorship proceedings that might impede its capability to prosecute him.
Girardi’s youthful brother is seeking appointment as his everlasting authorized guardian, with a listening to set for Monday, and has supplied as proof the opinion of a Lengthy Seashore psychiatrist who examined the lawyer final month and diagnosed him with “Alzheimer’s illness with late onset.” The psychiatrist mentioned Girardi has short-term reminiscence loss, delusions and “severely disorganized considering.”
An lawyer for Girardi’s non permanent conservator, Nicholas Van Brunt, mentioned, “No remark to make, besides that we’ll be responding to the submitting.” The Lengthy Seashore psychiatrist, Nathan Lavid, didn’t return messages searching for remark.
James J. Chang, a bar lawyer, questioned the legitimacy of the conservatorship proceedings as coming “below extremely uncommon circumstances” and “solely after [Girardi] turned enmeshed in mounting authorized troubles and as he’s going through imminent State Bar self-discipline.”
He wrote that info “belie allegations that Girardi is now incapable of caring for himself,” noting that the lawyer had talking engagements till late November. The bar’s high prosecutor, interim chief trial counsel Melanie Lawrence, listed two appearances Girardi made final fall, together with a Nov. 21 occasion for the Client Attorneys of California.
“Mr. Girardi moderated a 1.5-hour lengthy persevering with authorized schooling panel dialogue … relating to learn how to conduct a jury trial and engaged conversantly with the 4 different lawyer panelists,” Lawrence wrote.
The bar attorneys urged the decide overseeing the conservatorship case, Daniel Juarez, to order an unbiased examination of Girardi by a neuropsychologist.
Girardi’s agency, Girardi Keese, imploded in December after proof emerged that he had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in shopper settlement cash. A federal decide referred him for legal investigation, and collectors subsequently compelled him into chapter 11.
The flip of occasions shocked the authorized group, the place Girardi was among the many nation’s most famed and well-connected civil lawyers. Many exterior the legislation knew him because the real-life lawyer from the movie “Erin Brockovich” and from his appearances on “The Actual Housewives of Beverly Hills” alongside his spouse, pop singer Erika Jayne.
A Times investigation discovered that Girardi maintained a spotless report with the bar for many years regardless of greater than 100 fits towards him and his agency, together with quite a few claims of authorized malpractice and misappropriation of funds. Girardi cultivated shut relationships with bar officers, the newspaper discovered.
The bar on March 5 notified Girardi that it deliberate disciplinary motion towards him. In its submitting Friday, the bar mentioned the costs towards Girardi alleged that “he has willfully misappropriated shopper funds and refused to obey a court docket order.”
Discussion about this post