The State Bar of California admitted on Thursday that their investigators mishandled complaints made against Thomas Girardi for years.
As Thomas, who has been featured alongside his now-estranged wife, Erika Jayne, on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills since 2015, continues to face numerous lawsuits and bankruptcy proceedings, the organization admitted to making “mistakes” throughout his decades-long career practicing law.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Times on June 10, the State Bar of California’s Board of Trustees said in a news release that an audit of Thomas’ disciplinary file “revealed mistakes made in some investigations over the many decades of Mr. Girardi’s career going back some 40 years and spanning the tenure of many Chief Trial Counsels.”
The audit also “identified significant issues” in the “investigation and evaluation of high-dollar, high volume trust accounts.”
The rare statement from the bar comes months after a Times investigation pointed out that Thomas had been able to retain his law license, despite the many complaints filed about him and the lawsuits filed against him, and noted that he had cultivated close relationships with bar employees and frequently wined and dined with them.
Following the bar’s statement, two politicians with agency oversight requested the full audit, performed by attorney Alyse Lazar, be made public and called for more information regarding how Thomas was able to go undisciplined for so long.
“We are going to have to dig deeper,” Senator Tom Umberg said. “The Girardi debacle — it’s an embarrassment to the entire profession.”
And while the full release has been blocked by attorney-client privilege, he went on to say this is not a “national security issue” but rather a means to “protect consumers.”
Earlier this year, Thomas was stripped of his license to practice law after the State Bar of California accused him of misappropriating millions in client funds, dishonesty, and other misconduct.
A short time later, Robert Girardi, who was named as his temporary conservator in February, told the bar, via his attorney, that Thomas would never practice law again and had no plans to argue the proceedings.
In other Girardi news, a Radar Online report on June 11 noted that the State Bar of California’s audit also revealed that former clients of Thomas’ have accused him of taking at least $25 million owed to them and using it to fund his and Erika’s over-the-top lifestyle.
According to the bar, they believe Thomas may have stolen his former clients’ settlement funds, including $2 million from orphans and widows of plane crash victims, from trust accounts.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 11 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.