What is Tom Girardi’s net worth
Tom Girardi, the former husband of “Real Housewives” cast member Erika Jayne, has a net worth of $100 thousand, according to recent reports. However, in 2015, Tom estimated his net worth to be around $264 million. In a 2020 court case, Tom testified that he had at some point recently been worth $50-$80 million but by that point had no more money.
Tom is a highly-successful consumer lawyer in California who has won billions of dollars in judgments for his clients over several decades of legal cases. His firm, Girardi & Keese, pioneered the practice of taking major cases on contingency and in return would keep 25-40% of the final judgements amounts.
However, in January 2023, Tom was indicted by grand juries in both Los Angeles and Chicago for allegedly stealing $18 million from clients, including $3 million that was set aside for victims of a 2018 Lon Air plan crash.
Tom Girardi’s Legal Career
Tom Girardi was a renowned attorney who graduated from Loyola Marymount University, Loyola Law School, and New York University. In 1970, he became the first lawyer to win a medical malpractice case worth over $1 million in California. Throughout his career, Girardi represented clients against major corporations such as Lockheed Corp, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. He also took on the seven major movie studios in Hollywood.
Girardi’s most famous case was against Pacific Gas & Electric, which inspired the movie Erin Brockovich. He won $333 million for 650 residents in Hinkley, CA, and helped bring attention to the issue of contaminated drinking water. Girardi’s success in this case put him on the map as a leading attorney in the United States.
Tom Girardi’s Marriage to Erika Chahoy and Erika Jayne’s Rise to Fame
In 1999, Tom Girardi married actress Erika Chahoy, who was in her late 20s at the time while he was in his 60s. This was his second marriage, and he was still in a heated dispute with his first wife over their assets. The couple met when Erika was working as a waitress at Chasen’s, a restaurant in Beverly Hills that Tom co-owned.
Years later, Erika Jayne, as she is now known, gained fame after appearing on the reality TV show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in 2015.
After 21 years of marriage, Tom and Erika announced their separation in November 2020.
Tom Girardi’s Financial Troubles
As Erika Jayne’s fame grew, her husband Tom Girardi was reportedly working to secure loans for his law firm. In one loan application, Girardi estimated his net worth to be $264 million, listing ownership in two private planes, $9 million worth of jewelry, $3 million worth of antiques, and an estate in Pasadena worth north of $10 million. He also estimated that his firm’s 2016 legal fees would top $110 million. However, in May 2021, Tom and Erika listed their Pasadena mansion for $13 million and finally sold it in October 2022 for $7.5 million.
Girardi’s creditors grew concerned when they saw millions of dollars being transferred to Erika’s entertainment corporation, EJ Global LLC. The creditor sued for repayment, claiming that their funds were being spent on Tom and Erika’s lifestyle. Other creditors came forward, including a security company assigned to protect their Pasadena home that demanded $53,000 and Tom’s first wife who claimed her $10,000 monthly alimony payments had ceased. One of Girardi’s clients claimed that he had not received millions owed to him negotiated as a settlement. In January 2020, Girardi agreed to pay the man $12 million but allegedly stopped payments after only $1 million. The family sued, placing a lien on roughly $23 million worth of Girardi and Jayne’s assets.
In December 2020, Tom and his law firm were forced into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy. His creditors included his two former law partners, who claimed they were owed $750,000 and $1.5 million, respectively. A month earlier, a federal lawsuit accused Tom of embezzling “millions” of dollars owed to clients. According to court testimony, Girardi revealed that he had about $80 million or $50 million in cash at one point, but it was all gone, and he didn’t have any money. His stock portfolio, which was once worth $50 million, was now worth only a few thousand dollars.
According to a legal demand sent to Erika’s lawyers in August 2021, lawyers overseeing the Girardi Keese bankruptcy claimed that between 2008 and 2020, Erika spent $25 million to pay for assistants, a full-time glamor team, PR firms, and a dance agency. The letter claimed that Erika allegedly spent $14.25 million on her Amex card alone and demanded that she repay $28 million when interest and penalties were included. Erika’s lawyers claimed that she “never had and does not have personal liability for any debts or obligations of EJ Global LLC, period… [and that] none of the payments and no money whatsoever went to Erika.”
