Thomas Girardi’s Legal Drama Approaches Its Hollywood Ending

The Oscar-winning legal thriller ‘Erin Brockovich’ catapulted the already successful Los Angeles attorney Thomas V. Girardi into the national limelight.

In the years after that 2000 film highlighted his role in securing a $333 million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric for poisoning a California town’s drinking water, Girardi was inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame and was hailed as a pioneer of “toxic tort” litigation.

Decades later, the now-disbarred and bankrupt 85-year-old will face a criminal trial in Los Angeles federal court Tuesday. He’s charged with four counts of wire fraud for allegedly stealing $15 million in ...