California Bar Asks to Up Defense Budget in Girardi Class Action

The California State Bar’s Board of Trustees will be asked Tuesday for an additional $100,000 to fund the bar’s legal defense against claims that it shielded former plaintiffs’ attorney Tom Girardi, who has been criminally convicted of fraud, as ethics complaints mounted.

The increase would set the bar’s contracts with Orbach Huff & Henderson LLP and Sanders Roberts LLP at $300,000, according to a document released ahead of the board’s meeting scheduled for Tuesday.

The proposed class action was filed in 2023 by clients who said the state bar failed to protect them from Girardi, despite receiving dozens of ...