Thomas V. Girardi
Attorney
Attorney
Thomas Vincent Girardi is a founding partner of Girardi & Keese a downtown Los Angeles law firm. 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 the former Lockheed Corp (now the Lockheed Martin Corp.), Pacific Gas & Electric Co, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Hollywood’s seven major movie studios. In one of his better known cases against Pacific Gas & Electric, the utility company agreed to pay $333 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. This case was the inspiration for the film Erin Brockovich starring Julia Roberts. Girardi graduated from Loyola High School (Los Angeles) in 1957. He received his undergraduate degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1961, his LL.B. from Loyola Law School in 1964, and an LLM from New York University in 1965.
