Girardi law firm unethically recruited clients in Lion Air crash scheme, lawsuit alleges

The plaintiffs’ company Edelson, which precipitated the downfall of onetime individual damage titan Tom Girardi when it blew the whistle on his firm’s alleged theft from victims of the 2018 Lion Air crash, is as soon as once again elevating unsettling concerns about how this now-decapitated agency operated.

In a recently filed racketeering complaint in federal court docket in San Francisco, Edelson alleges that Girardi and his legislation agency could not have maintained a glitzy façade of invincibility with no assistance from a so-named circumstance runner who allegedly collected a share of the firm’s legal costs for shoppers he referred to Girardi.

The new criticism alleges that Girardi relied on George Hatcher, a self-described “advisor to attorneys and to households of victims/air tragedies/wrongful fatalities,” to drum up personal injury purchasers, together with the Indonesian plaintiffs who sued Boeing Co after the 2018 Lion Air crash.

Edelson, which was Girardi & Keese’s local counsel in the Lion Air litigation prior to suing Girardi in December 2020 for allegedly misappropriating their clients’ settlement cash, stated in the new lawsuit that Hatcher had an illegal contingency charge offer with Girardi & Keese, in which the organization agreed to pay the non-attorney a share of the fees it been given from purchasers he referred to the organization.

In addition, in accordance to the criticism, Hatcher gained “numerous” $50,000 bonus payments to assure that he recruited clientele solely for Girardi & Keese. The lawsuit details 6 this sort of reward payments to Hatcher from Girardi & Keese in the spring of 2020 – even as Hatcher allegedly reassured Lion Air crash plaintiffs he experienced helped recruit that he was nudging Girardi to pay out the settlement money they were because of.

Hatcher did not reply to queries I sent to 3 unique electronic mail accounts and to his Twitter account.

Edelson filed the new San Francisco grievance immediately after agreeing to fork out $2 million to 5 of Girardi’s allegedly defrauded Lion Air clientele. Those purchasers, in switch, assigned Edelson their promises against Girardi defendants, which includes Tom Girardi’s estranged spouse, Real Housewives star Erika Jayne Girardi. Tom Girardi and Girardi & Keese are equally in bankruptcy proceedings and are not named as defendants in the new go well with, which Edelson previewed in a draft grievance submitted in April in the Chicago Lion Air litigation.

Erika Girardi has vehemently denied any involvement in or understanding of the alleged fraud. Tom Girardi, as my colleague Jacqueline Thomsen documented on Thursday, could not straight away be achieved for comment. He has not responded to allegations about the misuse of the Lion Air settlement cash, but his lawyers have acknowledged the dollars was not dispersed.

Hatcher emphasized his essential function in Girardi & Keese operations in an e mail quoted in the Edelson grievance: “My occupation was exclusive [sic] new conditions to GK and when feasible, refer the circumstance with out a lawyer included,” he wrote. “Only man or woman is me, GK saved 25% on just about every situation, by not obtaining a attorney associated.”

Ethics procedures, the grievance reported, normally prohibit attorneys from sharing contingency service fees with non-lawyers. The criticism, which alleges that Hatcher and the other defendants ended up aspect of a racketeering conspiracy, explained Hatcher’s charge deal with Girardi & Keese as “illegal.”

“We experienced all heard stories of non-legal professional circumstance runners who would choose payment shares, but we considered that was mostly a detail of the previous,” Edelson title spouse Jay Edelson informed me by electronic mail. “We have been stunned to discover that, not only has it been going on, corporations like Girardi Keese weren’t even hoping to include their tracks.”

Hatcher said on his website that he advises “senior companions of top rated U.S. and global law firms” but cited only his relationship with famed plaintiffs’ lawyer Ed Masry, who died in 2005.

What is very clear from the complaint is that Girardi’s Lion Air shoppers trustworthy Hatcher. After the Lion Air crash, Hatcher allegedly recruited an Indonesian speak to, Mohamed Eltaher, to sign up shoppers for Girardi & Keese. (Eltaher was also allegedly promised a share of the firm’s eventual charges.) Hatcher then acted as a liaison concerning the clientele and the legislation agency, presenting himself to consumers as an advocate for their passions as they attempted to get Tom Girardi’s consideration, according to the criticism.

In a person team chat trade in April 2020, a Lion Air consumer told Hatcher, “U are the saviour,” just after Girardi & Keese lawyers were slow to respond to emails. Hatcher replied, “I promised all of you, I will be in this article for you, and I retain my guarantees.” (The team chats are quoted at duration in the complaint.)

In a different write-up in the Lion Air group chat, Hatcher informed clientele, “I make no excuses for GK’s delay in disbursing your money,” but added, “In all the years I know the firm and Tom, I have under no circumstances identified a client who has not gotten their money….Tom is controversial and he’s grumpy like most of us who are previous but he’s my pal. He’s your mate, too.”

The complaint asserted that Hatcher realized, even as he touted Girardi’s very good faith to Lion Air purchasers, that the firm was lying to them about their settlement money. Hatcher himself, the lawsuit contends, was receiving successive $50,000 payments from Girardi & Keese at the very same time that he designed excuses to Lion Air shoppers about COVID-linked delays in their payouts.

A criticism, of course, is only allegations. But the Edelson agency has been investigating Girardi & Keese for a year and a 50 percent and seems to have documents to back again the fundamental principles of his account of the firm’s offer with Hatcher.

I asked Edelson whether he thinks Girardi & Keese was an outlier in its payment deal with the situation runner. He stated he’s uncovered evidence that Hatcher been given big funds from at minimum a person other organization, in spite of negotiating an special client generation settlement with Girardi.

“We imagine that Mr. Hatcher is, regrettably, an illustration of matters that are going on throughout the plaintiffs’ bar,” Edelson claimed.

Go through additional:

Regulation agency sues Erika Girardi, some others over alleged theft of customer resources

Courtroom backs law firm’s offer with Girardi plaintiffs, paving way for lawsuit

Tom Girardi and fact star wife sued for alleged theft of Lion Air settlement money

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