Attorney, ex-clients say Girardi was devious, not confused

"I never felt he was confused. ... I felt he was lying to confuse me and bully me," an attorney who represented a former client of Tom Girardi in a State Bar complaint over missing settlement funds testified in the now disbarred plaintiffs' attorney's federal wire fraud trial Monday.

In November 2020, Beverly Hills attorney Eric B. Seuthe represented Judy Selberg in the State Bar disciplinary action to recover nearly $200,000 that she said Girardi deceptively kept from her for months. She had retained his firm in a 2019 death liability lawsuit that resulted in a $500,000 settlement months later.

Last week, Selberg told jurors that Girardi gave her the run-around for months about why her portion of the reward wasn't being sent to her. She had been told by a former Girardi Keese attorney who managed her case, Alexa F. Galloway, that the money was deposited in the now-defunct firm's client trust account in June 2020.

Some of the reasons Selberg said Girardi gave her: that a Los Angeles County judge unrelated to her action needed to sign off on her check; and that Girardi was negotiating with the IRS to exclude her from a law that purportedly taxed women in personal death cases and not men.
While under direct examination by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paetty, Seuthe said after Girardi used the same reasons in letters and voicemails that were sent to him in response to Selberg's planned grievance, "I told him: 'Tom, you know better. That's not the way it is.'"

In a voicemail that was played in court, Girardi told Seuthe: "I've done a bunch of wrong things in my life ... OK? Truly, this isn't one of them. Eric, this is awful."

In a response letter Seuthe wrote to Girardi that was shown to jurors, the attorney stated: "Your letter makes no sense at all." In a second letter regarding a December 2020 phone conversation he had with Girardi, Seuthe wrote, "To be very honest with you, it did not appear you understood the nature of my call."

Seuthe said during the call, Girardi suggested Selberg was owed only $4,000 and had to be reminded the correct amount due was approximately $180,000.

During cross-examination, Federal Defender Charles J. Snyder confronted Seuthe about his perception of Girardi at the time and asked him if he believed Girardi's reasoning was that of someone who did not have the mental capacity to competently run a law firm at the time.

During opening statements last week, Girardi's counsel told jurors that Girardi, now 85, was a victim of elder abuse and taken advantage of by his firm's former financial chief, Christopher Kamon, a severed defendant in the case. The indictment stems from allegations Girardi schemed with Kamon to misappropriate over $15 million in settlement funds from multiple clients between 2010 to 2020. U.S. v. Girardi et al., 2:23-cr-00047 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 31, 2023).

While Seuthe acknowledged Girardi's reasoning was "irrational," he testified that he believed the prominent attorney was merely presenting a ruse to avoid paying Selberg what she was owed.

"This was a misdirection play," Seuthe told Snyder. "I believe he was doing everything he could to throw me off track. ... I was just trying to recover my client's money," Seuthe said.

A third client, Josephina Hernandez, also took the witness stand Monday. She said she retained Girardi Keese in 2014 for a medical device injury that settled in multi-district litigation in 2020. Hernandez, who was going through personal bankruptcy at the time, was owed approximately $55,000. However, she said the money was never sent to her, even after Girardi Keese was dismantled in early 2021 and she filed a State Bar disciplinary complaint.

Among the "excuses" she said Girardi gave her was that the check was awaiting several court orders and signatures. Girardi also told her he was waiting to hear back from the bankruptcy trustee to determine their portion of the settlement and that he would send her a personal check to cover her reward, she testified.

Hernandez said Girardi's personal check was never sent and a settlement consent form that was signed months before their conversation had already detailed a determined trustee settlement percentage.

"I had no idea what he was talking about," Hernandez said.

Jurors heard multiple voicemails Girardi left for Hernandez, telling her several times, "Don't be mad at me," and how the delay wasn't the firm's fault because issues developed beyond their control. "I'm a good guy, by the way," Girardi said in one of the voicemails.

Sometimes, Girardi wrote on a notepad as the witnesses testified. Once, he appeared to show what he had written to one of his lawyers, Federal Defender J. Alejandro Barrientos, who was sitting next to him.

Arin R. Scapa - a former Girardi Keese attorney who was assigned to Hernandez's case in 2020 to handle communication and finalize the settlement - testified Monday afternoon that nothing about Girardi's responses to her questioning of the settlement's status led her to believe he was mentally confused or incapable of handling client funds.

In personal conversations Scapa had with Girardi about Hernandez's case, she said he would always tell her he would "take care of it" and to give the client his contact information.

After Hernandez threatened to file a grievance against him due to months of no progress with the check, Scapa said, "It didn't seem to concern him."

A former Girardi Keese accounting employee, Norina Rouillard, testified late Monday that attorneys approved by Girardi, including his son-in-law, David R. Lira, were issued American Express cards that ran through the firm's bank account.

She said typical expenses charged to the firm's operating account included firm activity such as travel for conferences. Charges she said "should not have been there" but also included property tax payments, luxurious airline flights, hotels and restaurant bills.

The money would also be used for extravagant holiday and Super Bowl parties with live entertainment that Rouillard estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars. She said it was not her job to keep a list of the expenses and Kamon was responsible for relaying the information to Girardi. However, Rouillard was not part of those conversations, she said.