Thomas Girardi.

Prominent plaintiffs attorney Thomas Girardi is pushing back against claims that he and his firm owe more than $15 million to Law Finance Group LLC.

The litigation funder sued Girardi and his firm, Girardi Keese, in Los Angeles Superior Court on Jan. 17 claiming that they've refused to hand over recovered fees from cases that the parties allegedly agreed would be used to repay the loans.

But in a phone message left with The Recorder Wednesday, Girardi said that the underlying loan was taken out on behalf of clients, not for him and the firm. Girardi said the money that was borrowed was “either advances or to pay costs of a major case.”

Related story: Litigation Funder Sues Thomas Girardi, Firm Claiming $15M+ in Unpaid Loans

Girardi said that one case, in particular, is tied up as clients have dealt with medical liens and other issues. “All the settlement funds did not come in and obviously we wanted our clients to get paid before some lender,” Girardi said.

Girardi called Law Finance Group “a miserable, rotten, despicable company” and said that the funder had rebuffed his offer of $65 million in stock he holds in a publicly traded company as additional collateral. He also suggested that funder sued only two days after another lender he had lined up to buy Law Finance Group out of its position reached out to make arrangements.

“Very interesting. So, that's the truth.  Nice talking to you,” said Girardi at the conclusion of the 94-second voice message. 

In a letter his assistant later sent via email to respond to follow-up questions, Girardi said he had been in contact with Law Finance Group's CEO Alan Zimmerman to explain it would likely take two or three weeks to finalize the deal with the new lender.

“I told Zimmerman that if his company needed any more security, I would set them up with $36 million worth of stock I have in a New York Exchange company until the new firm could make the loan. Two days later, this miserable, rotten, despicable company filed the lawsuit that you have a copy of,” Girardi said.

“To show you how miserable and disgusting they are, they talked about my lavish lifestyle when not one penny of this money went to me or to anyone in this law firm. We will see what a jury has to say about their conduct,” Girardi added.

Law Finance Group's lawyer, Leslie Corwin of Eisner APC, said Thursday that he stands behind every allegation in the complaint. Corwin defended his client's track record, and said the loan agreement underlying the dispute with Girardi was very clear.

“It's a loan to his law firm. It's a loan to him. Nowhere does it say it's a loan to his clients,” Corwin said.

Corwin said that Girardi “has never made a good-faith offer to me to take care of this matter or to make financial disclosures since I came into the case in November.”

“If some other lender wants to take him out that's fine,” Corwin said. “We want to be paid dollar for dollar.”

Girardi notably scored $333 million settlement on behalf of residents of Hinkley, California in the toxic tort case that inspired the film “Erin Brockovich.”  Girardi's finances and those of the firm, however, have repeatedly been the subject of litigation with his wife joining the cast of Bravo's “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” in 2015.

Read Girardi's full letter:

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