State Bar seeks to disbar Girardi’s son-in-law and former partner for defrauding clients
by Robert J. Hansen
The State Bar of California is seeking to disbar former Girardi-Keese attorneys David Lira and Keith Griffin, the Office of Chief Trial Counsel (OCTC) announced Thursday.
OCTC seeks their disbarment for their part in misappropriating funds settlement funds from families of victims of the 2018 crash of Lion Air Flight 610, killing 189 people aboard.
Now disbarred attorney Thomas V. Girardi also faces an indictment for embezzling more than $15 million from clients.
The District Court for the Northern District of Illinois reached a settlement agreement with Boeing in March 2020 for Lion Air clients, according to the press release.
Boeing transferred the funds to Girardi’s firm’s account as the funds were supposed to be wired from that account to the accounts of the Lion Air clients as soon as possible.
The Bar charges that Lira and Griffin misled their clients and the Edelson firm by not promptly telling them that the Boeing settlement funds had been received. Instead of paying Lion Air clients in full, the Girardi-Keese attorneys only made partial payments.
Lira is charged with 11 counts including one such charge that he allegedly stated under oath that the delay in paying the families of crash victims was the only such delay he knew about when he knew that statement was false.
Lira is also charged with misappropriating more than $743,000 of clients’ money by writing 270 checks from funds meant for the families of those killed in the crash.
Griffin has eight counts of alleged rules violations and acts of moral turpitude related to the Lion Air case.
In September 2020, Griffin spoke with Girardi about wiring more settlement funds to the Lion Air clients. Girardi told Griffin that the firm had received some attorney’s fees on a settlement in an unrelated employment case that Griffin worked on and that Girardi would approve sending additional partial payments to the Lion Air clients.
According to the notice of charges, Griffin was aware at the time that full payments to the clients had not been made and that the partial payments were made using funds earned in an unrelated case.
In a separate notice, also filed Wednesday, Lira was charged with misappropriating funds from a settlement he negotiated in a 2014 collision in San Bernardino between a Caltrans dump truck and an automobile that left two young people dead and several others injured.
The Bar alleged that Lira presented his clients with paperwork that he knew contained false costs or charges, and that he misappropriated more than $369,000 of the clients’ settlement funds.
Attorney discipline matters are investigated and prosecuted by the State Bar’s OCTC and the attorney is presumed innocent of the allegations until the State Bar Court finds the attorney is culpable by clear and convincing evidence.
The State Bar Court rules whether an attorney has committed professional misconduct and may recommend that an attorney be suspended or disbarred.
The State Bar Court’s recommendation is transmitted to the California Supreme Court, which determines whether to impose the recommended discipline, according to rule 9.18, California Rules of Court.
