Disbarred attorney sentenced to 7 years in prison for swindling clients

June 3, 2025

By KAREN VELIE

Disbarred personal injury attorney Thomas Girardi was sentenced today to 87 months in federal prison for leading a years-long scheme in which he embezzled tens of millions of dollars of settlement money that belonged to his clients, some of whom suffered severe physical injuries.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton also ordered Girardi to pay a $35,000 fine and $2,310,247 in restitution. Girardi is required to surrender to federal authorities no later than July 17.

Girardi was found guilty by a jury in Aug. 2024 of four counts of wire fraud. He spent his ill-gotten gains on his wife’s business, private jet travel, jewelry, luxury cars, and exclusive golf and social clubs.

“This self-proclaimed ‘champion of justice’ was nothing more than a thief and a liar who conned his vulnerable clients out of the millions of dollars,” said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “My office will vigorously prosecute corrupt lawyers and those who assist them in criminal activities.”

A once-powerful figure in California’s legal community, Girardi ran the now-defunct downtown Los Angeles law firm Girardi Keese. For years, Girardi misappropriated and embezzled millions of dollars from client trust accounts at his law firm.

Girardi operated Girardi Keese like a Ponzi-scheme by providing a litany of lies for failure to pay clients and directing law firm employees to make incremental payments of newly obtained settlement funds to previously defrauded clients.

In addition, Girardi diverted tens of millions of dollars from his law firm’s operating account to pay illegitimate expenses, including more than $25 million to pay the expenses of EJ Global, a company formed by his wife related to her entertainment career.

For years, Girardi’s victims filed complaints with the State Bar of California. However, multiple former state bar staffers protected Girardi, according to the state bar.

The State Bar of California disbarred Girardi in July 2022.

In 2023, the state bar finished a 16-month investigation that determined some staff members used poor judgment, ignoring or poorly handling conflicts of interest, and otherwise behaving unethically.

Examples include:

• Former state bar employee Tom Layton, who was terminated in 2015, (and his wife) received gifts and payments estimated at over $1 million from Girardi, through his firm, while Layton was employed at the state bar. Those payments and gifts were never properly disclosed.
• Other state bar employees and board members accepted and failed to report gifts and other items of value from Girardi.
• Relatives of staff members were employed by Girardi’s firm.
• Staff in the Office of Chief Trial Counsel (OCTC) were improperly involved in matters assigned to outside conflict counsel.
• Eight Girardi cases were closed by individuals who were determined to have had conflicts of interest at the time they worked on the cases. The report found that their conflicts tainted their decisions to close the cases.
• Interim Executive Director Bob Hawley ghostwrote decisions in matters assigned to outside conflict counsel without disclosing that fact, including a decision to recommend closure of a complaint against Girardi.
• Between 2013 and 2015, both the Executive Director’s Office and Office of General Counsel received reports about Girardi’s influence at the state bar and connection to Layton and others but failed to investigate.
• Former Executive Director Joe Dunn, who was terminated in 2014, and Hawley made questionable terminations of two OCTC attorneys who were advocating for disciplinary actions against Girardi.
• On at least one occasion, Girardi successfully deployed his connections at the state bar to discourage people from making complaints against him.

Several former client’s of Girardi have since filed suits against the State Bar of California for the failures to properly investigate their complaints.