Ex-Girardi Keese Lawyer Says He Did All He Could to Help Victims

Ex-Girardi Keese attorney Keith Griffin wasn’t part of the decision to lie to clients of disbarred plaintiff’s attorney Tom Girardi in spring 2020, Griffin’s counsel said Tuesday in California State Bar Court, although Griffin had seen a letter Girardi eventually sent, which blamed “tax issues” for not distributing Lion Air litigation settlement funds.

The California State Bar’s Office of Trial Counsel announced in June it was seeking to disbar Griffin, a former Girardi Keese attorney, as well as his colleague, Girardi’s son-in-law David Lira, for their alleged roles in stealing the millions of dollars in client settlement funds from 2018 Lion Air crash victims’ families. Both attorneys escaped contempt in Chicago federal court in 2022 for their involvement in the Lion Air crash litigation.

Girardi Keese was under court orders to send clients their settlement money “as soon as practicable” after the funds were sent to the firm’s client trust account. Griffin knew that the trust had received the funds in March 2020 but didn’t share that information with victims’ families who asked repeatedly to receive their payments, violating professional conduct rules, argued OCTC attorney Eli Morgenstern.

“I hope you would convey any info that you have to me,” Morgenstern recounted a client saying in an email to Griffin. Many of Morgenstern’s questions related to Griffin’s charges on eight counts of moral turpitude were shot down by California State Bar Court Judge Phong Wang during Griffin’s trial that started Tuesday because they were speculative.

Griffin had no control over settlement funds and asked Girardi and the accounting department to distribute the funds repeatedly and without showing intentional deceit, Rosen Saba LLP attorney Ryan Saba said in Griffin’s defense. Griffin repeated his boss’ answers to the clients and sent “memo after memo after memo” to Girardi asking him to pay, Saba said.

“That was all I was able to do. That was all I knew. They were the ones with the time table, the ones who could issue the checks—not me,” Griffin said from the stand.

Internal Girardi Keese emails offer no evidence that Griffin was in on Girardi’s alleged scam, Saba said during opening arguments. None of Griffin’s communications with clients say, “‘I did this for you, Mr. Girardi,’ or ‘Way to go’ or ‘We’re lulling them,’” Saba said during opening arguments.

Rather, Griffin advised the clients to sue Girardi Keese at the end of fall 2020 after months of excuses from Girardi.

California State Bar’s Office of Trial Counsel is representing the state bar. Rosen Saba LLP is representing Griffin.

The case is In the matter of Keith David Griffin, Cal. State Bar, No SBC-23-0-30691, 10/24/23.