Thomas Vincent Girardi is an American former attorney and co-founder of the now-defunct Girardi & Keese, a downtown Los Angeles law firm. He was disbarred in 2022 after accusations of defrauding clients.
He is separated from his third wife, the performer Erika Jayne, with whom he occasionally appeared on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in their Pasadena mansion.
In August 2024 he was found guilty of stealing tens of millions of dollars from his clients, and was sentenced in May 2025 to an 87-month prison term. He faces another trial in 2025 in Chicago on similar charges of fraud.
In 1970, Girardi became the first attorney in the state of California to win a $1 million-plus award for a medical malpractice case. Girardi has handled major cases against Boeing, Merck, Lockheed Corp (now Lockheed Martin), Pacific Gas & Electric, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Hollywood's seven major movie studios.
In the case against Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company in 1996 agreed to pay $460 million to 650 residents of the desert community of Hinkley, California. The residents blamed incidents of cancer and other diseases on contaminated water leaked from a gas pumping station. The story of one activist's work in Hinkley and the lawyers who backed her led to the 2000 film Erin Brockovich. Girardi is thanked in the credits and served as an adviser to the filmmakers.
In 2003, Girardi was inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame by the State Bar of California. The International Association of Top Professionals named Girardi the “Lawyer of the Decade” for 2018. He was also the first trial lawyer to be appointed to the California Judicial Council, the policymaking body of the state courts.
In 2007, Girardi was among a team of lawyers who negotiated a $4.85 billion settlement on behalf of thousands of plaintiffs who complained of complications associated with Merck's pain medication Vioxx.
Girardi was known for his work in Democratic party politics, donating millions of dollars to campaigns, playing a role in fundraising events, and giving advice to governors regarding judicial appointments. In January 2021, he was removed from California Governor Gavin Newsom's Judicial Selection Advisory Committee, which vets judges for the state bench.
In March 2021, the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles revoked its awards to Girardi, including the 1995 Trial Lawyer of the Year, and removed him from its hall of fame.
