California Bar Girardi Probes Fault Influence, Dropped Cases (2)

Disgraced attorney Thomas Girardi charmed and bribed his way to avoid State Bar of California disciplinary proceedings, two redacted reports released by the agency said Friday.

Among the probes’ findings is that Girardi, though his firm, gave one State Bar employee and his family more than $1 million in cash and other things of value.

The lawyer’s efforts to buy relationships and exercise influence at the bar “likely impacted the handling of some complaints against him, causing those complaints to be closed improperly,” the bar said in a release announcing its findings.

The bar hired the Los Angeles law ...