Thomas Girardi (born June 3, 1939) is a former attorney and co-founder of the now defunct Los Angeles downtown legislation agency Girardi & Keese. In 2022, he was disqualified from the bar after being accused of defrauding prospects.
Girardi graduated from Loyola High School (Los Angeles) in 1957. Graduated from New York University in 1965. In 1970, Girardi grew to become the primary attorney in California to obtain an award of greater than $1 million in a medical malpractice case. Girardi has dealt with vital circumstances towards the former Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and seven main Hollywood film studios.
In one notable case towards Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility agreed to pay $460 million to 650 residents of the Hinckley Desert neighborhood in California. Local residents have blamed most cancers and different diseases on contaminated water leaking from fuel stations. This case was the inspiration for the movie Erin Brockovich (2000) starring Julia Roberts. “This specific case has utterly modified the way in which folks take into consideration all of the poisonous substances they’re uncovered to,” he advised Law Journal’s attorneys. Girardi additionally served as a marketing consultant on the movie.
In 2003, he was honored to be inducted into the Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame by the California Bar Association. He is a board member and previous president of the distinguished International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a worldwide group open by invitation solely to 500 trial attorneys, in response to his web site. Girardi was additionally the primary trial attorney appointed to the California Judiciary Board, the decision-making physique of state courts.
Girardi is understood for his work in Democratic politics, contributing thousands and thousands to campaigns, enjoying a job in fundraisers and advising governors on choose appointments.
In 2010, Girardi was amongst a bunch of attorneys looking for to implement a $489 million default judgment in a U.S. courtroom towards Dole Food and Shell Chemicals allegedly filed by a Nicaraguan courtroom over the results of the pesticide DBCP on uncovered staff. It is revoked. The U.S. courtroom discovered that the interpretation of paperwork associated to Nicaragua submitted by Girardi and others had critical flaws. Girardi and others had been formally reprimanded, and her legislation agency was fined for violating its obligation to open up to the courts.
