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California prosecutors filed a discipline charge against a former senior lawyer with the law firm of disgraceful former lawyer Tom Girardi. The lawyer has been accused of hiding details of the $53 million settlement from one of its clients.
The charges against 70-year-old Robert Finnerty center on his role as an attorney for Joseph Louisomez, a Bay Area man who suffered devastating burns on most of his body in the 2010 San Bruno Pipeline explosion.
Finnerty and Girardi represented Louis Gomez and Louis Gomez’s parents and sisters in a lawsuit filed against Pacific Gas & Electric.
According to a charge filed in state court, which was disclosed Monday, Finnati negotiated a $53 million settlement with PG&E in 2013 without knowledge or approval of the Louis Gomez family, and the family were not informed of the total settlement amount at the time.
Rather, they were told that the settlement was much lower. After attorneys’ fees, Joseph was told he received $5 million, his parents received $1 million, and his sister received $250,000. The family only looked at the signing page of the settlement agreement, not in full documentation, according to the charges.
The lawsuit against Finnerty shows the latest efforts by the state legislator of California to seek accountability to those currently affiliated with Girardi Keith’s law firms. Girardi has been denied. Another lawyer is facing a 15-month suspension. And the third lawyer faces multiple misconduct.
Finnerty and his attorneys did not respond to messages seeking comment.
The prosecutors outlined the Louis Gomez family’s efforts to obtain basic information from the lawyers about the settlements mediated in their names, and then collected the full amount they owed.
PG&E had wired money to Girardi in January 2013, but the Ruigomez family had no idea it would be available for several months. In May 2013, Louis Gomez’s mother, Kathleen, emailed Finnerty in search of a settlement.
“Except for the signature page, I have not actually received anything regarding the documentary of the case,” she writes. “It’s been a few months,” he added, “When should I get some documents like a settlement agreement?”
On October 30, 2014, more than a year later, Girardi sent out a record revealing that a $25 million pension had been purchased in other records revealing the name and settlement of Joseph Louisgomez.
The family pushed their money against them.
Finnerty and Girardi told Ruigomezes that although no such accounts existed, the funds were held in interest accounts. From 2016 to 2019, the Girardi Keith Company intermittently sent so-called interest to the Louis Gomez family, but did not convey a full settlement or provide a copy of the settlement agreement.
There is no claim that Finnerty himself misappropriated the settlement. However, the filing accused him of not revealing that at least $6.6 million has been misused based on the balance in his Girardi Keese Trust account.
“nevertheless [Finnerty] He never knew Ruigomezes’ company had misused their settlement fund, or was grossly negligent, because he knew that Girardi’s company had misused their settlement fund,” the state prosecutor wrote.
Finnerty left Girardi’s law firm in 2019 and began working at Encino’s law firm Abir Cohen Treyzon Salo, or Acts Law. That year, the Louis Gomez family sued Girardi in Superior Court, accusing him of diverting funds. A few months later, Girardi signed a contract to pay $12 million, but after $1 million was sent, payments stopped.
The Louis Gomez family escalated their efforts to collect in 2020, placing a lien in Girardi’s home and issued subpoenas to his accountant, his then-wife, Erica Girardi, and his personal travel agent. They also forced Girardi to testify under oath about his finances, drawing extraordinary recognition from him when he still enjoyed his reputation as a wealthy and influential lawyer.
“At one point, I had about 80 or 50 million cash, and it’s all gone,” Girardi testified in the summer of 2020. “I don’t have any money.”
Within a few months, Girardi’s company collapsed and he was introduced for a criminal investigation. Last summer, the federal ju judge convicted Girardi of four counts of wire fraud by embezzling millions of dollars from clients at law firms, including the Louis Gomez family, and then using the funds to take on a luxurious lifestyle.
His sentence was delayed as the judge assessed whether Girardi should be sent to a medical facility or federal prison.
During the criminal trial, federal agents testified that Finnerty was one of Girardi’s former House members who were warned by federal authorities that he was the target of an ongoing fraud investigation. The status of the probe is unknown.
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