Decades of missteps at the State Bar of California enabled attorney Thomas Girardi, the famed lawyer who is accused of misappropriating millions of dollars in client funds, according to a bar audit that recommended steps to tighten oversight of client trust accounts.
The confidential audit of past complaints filed against Girardi exposed “significant issues” over 40 years in the bar’s Office of Chief Trial Counsel in investigations and evaluations of “high-dollar, high-volume trust accounts,” the agency said Thursday.
The announcement followed a series of closed-door meetings by the bar’s Board of Trustees. While the full audit’s results weren’t revealed and ...