Girardi Keese Lawyers Discussed Moving Cases as Firm Collapsed

Girardi Keese lawyers met as the firm was collapsing in December 2020 — likely behind Thomas Girardi’s back — to discuss moving lawyers and cases to another Los Angeles-based personal injury law firm, Girardi’s longtime secretary testified on Tuesday.

Shirleen Fujimoto, who worked as Girardi’s secretary for more than two decades, said she wasn’t aware of a move to transition the firm’s ownership near the end of 2020, but “there was something brewing” with the ACTS Law firm, also known as Abir Cohen Treyzon Salo LLP.

Prosecutors rested their case against Girardi Monday and witnesses for his defense are now testifying in the US District Court for the Central District of California. Part of the defense’s strategy so far has been to emphasize that Girardi didn’t know all that went on at the firm, and to shift blame from Girardi, the firm’s leader, onto other lawyers and members of the accounting team.

Allegations that the Girardi Keese firm was withholding client settlement funds were garnering substantial media coverage, as the firm tipped into bankruptcy and effectively closed at the end of 2020. Around the same time, members of the ACTS firm were interviewing Girardi Keese lawyers “and trying to transfer cases,” Fujimoto said, adding she thinks Girardi didn’t know about it.

She begged John “Jack” Girardi, Keith Griffin, and Christopher Aumais in an email to warn the Girardi Keese non-lawyer employees about the state of the firm in an email on Dec. 2, 2020, which was shown to the jury.

“Obviously, you all know the plan and have been working to save yourselves...but think of the others who’ve helped you,” Fujimoto wrote.

Some lawyers met in a parking garage to call Robert Finnerty, who joined ACTS after leaving Girardi Keese, behind Girardi’s back, Fujimoto said.

“I feel so badly for Tom and have such conflicted feelings about the transition of files to ACTS,” firm employee Colleen Teeman said in an email to Fujimoto on Dec. 14, 2020.

Finnerty, Aumais, Griffin, and Girardi’s son-in-law David Lira have received target letters from the federal government, meaning they could be charged with a crime, an IRS special agent testified Monday.

Fujimoto also said to Girardi’s defense team on Tuesday that in 2020, around the time Girardi fell for an email scam, lawyers at the firm would direct her not to print certain emails for Girardi to read, cutting off his access to that information because he didn’t use a computer.

John Girardi said in a Dec. 12, 2020 email about Girardi, in relation to the case of a client who had hired a lawyer to sue the firm over missing settlement funds, “Unfortunately, he is not at a stage where he can have much of an understanding about any document that comes his way.”

Cross examination from prosecutor Ali Moghaddas didn’t touch on interactions with the ACTS firm in 2020.

Despite Fujimoto’s recollections that Girardi’s memory was declining that year, she told Moghaddas that nobody from the firm contacted a doctor of the state bar about concerns over Girardi’s memory while the firm was operational.

Moghaddas played a voicemail from Girardi to plaintiffs’ attorney Jay Edelson, whose firm worked with Girardi to represent victims of an airplane crash but later sued him for fraud, from the end of December 2020, after Fujimoto left the firm.

“Jay, don’t be bad to me,” Girardi said. “I’m a nice guy.”

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 8/20/24.