Girardi Defense Tries to Deflect to Firm Associate in Cross-Exam

Thomas V. Girardi’s defense on the third day of his criminal trial sought to deflect the blame for clients of his firm going unpaid onto a former junior associate, who first joined the firm while still in law school.

Alexa Galloway, now an associate with Hanson Bridgett LLP, who testified in Los Angeles federal court for nearly six hours from Wednesday to Thursday, said she tried dozens of times to connect client Judy Selberg with a settlement for her husband’s death in a boat crash.

Girardi and his team used her as a messenger and stalled for months, Galloway said. Later, she was named, alongside Girardi, in a lawsuit filed by Selberg in state court. A complaint was also filed against her with the California State Bar.

“This is not just about the client. This is about my career,” Galloway wrote in a November 2020 message to Girardi.

The defense, on the third day of proceedings, appeared to be leaning into a strategy it outlined before trial, when it indicated blame would fall on the shoulders of former Girardi Keese CFO Christopher Kamon.

Deputy Federal Public Defender Charles Snyder showed the jury emails in which Selberg’s proceedings were referred to as “Alexa’s case,” and pressed Galloway about her role.

Galloway testified that she asked Girardi to send Selberg her cut of the settlement more than ten times, after it was sent to the firm in June 2020.

Girardi tried to say Selberg’s payments were late because of “a very unfair tax issue” in which women, but not men, would be taxed on certain settlements. In the draft letter he assured Selberg that he had worked it out with the head of the IRS.

“The idea that women would be taxed more than men in 2020 is preposterous to me, yes,” Galloway said.

The defense’s questioning of Galloway relied heavily on a document called a case card register, a ledger used by the firm’s accounting department to track payments in Selberg’s case.

Because Galloway said she didn’t understand the document and hadn’t seen it before, prosecutors could have objected to its use — but didn’t, a potential misstep. As a result, Judge Josephine L. Staton of the US District Court for the Central District of California said prosecutors had given up that chance.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 8/8/24.