Tom Girardi and his wife Erika Jayne during the episode “Horsing Around Tom Girardi and his wife Erika Jayne during the episode “Horsing Around” of the Bravo television show The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which aired Dec. 15, 2015.

Prominent plaintiffs attorney Thomas Girardi has punched back against a lawsuit filed by an Arizona lender claiming that he used loan funds designated for his law firm to fund a “lavish lifestyle” for himself and his wife, “Real Housewives of Beverley Hills” cast member Erika Jayne.

In court papers filed Aug. 7, Girardi, his wife and his firm, Girardi Keese, have asked a Phoenix federal judge to dismiss the suit and compel arbitration—something they say is called for in the firm’s loan agreement with the lender, Stillwell Madison.

“The current action was filed as a publicity stunt,” wrote the defendants’ lawyer, Robert Baker of Baker, Keener & Nahra. Baker, who previously represented O.J. Simpson in civil suits following his acquittal on murder charges, added that the lawsuit was filed in court in an “attempt to embarrass the defendants” and “with the goal to try to use the Court system as a publicity campaign.”

“The Plaintiff surely knew there was an arbitration agreement in the contract for which they seek to enforce,” Baker wrote.

Lender Stillwell Madison, represented by lawyers at DLA Piper, sued the Girardi defendants May 24 in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona claiming that the firm borrowed $5,110,440.38 in April 2016 and still owed at least $3,454,804.00. The complaint claimed that “the Firm and Mr. Girardi intended at the time the loan agreement was entered to use at least a portion of the loan funds to support Mr. Girardi and his wife’s high-end lifestyle, but concealed this fact from Stillwell.”

The Arizona lawsuit came as Girardi and the firm were engaged in separate litigation filed in California state court in early 2019 by Mill Valley-based funder Law Finance Group over the repayment of a loan of more than $15 million. Law Finance Group claimed that Girardi and the firm refused to hand over recovered fees from cases the parties allegedly agreed would repay the loans. Girardi has since agreed to pay $16 million to settle the dispute with Law Finance Group, but paid only $10 million. Law Finance Group, represented by lawyers at Eisner, secured a $6 million judgment against Girardi and the firm in Los Angeles Superior Court last month.

In the Arizona lawsuit, Stillwell Madison claimed that Girardi and the firm failed to inform the lender of the default on the Law Finance Group loan. Stillwell Madison claims it wouldn’t have agreed to alter the repayment schedule for its own loan to Girardi had it known of the default on the Law Finance Group loan.

Girardi’s lawyer, however, argues that the loan agreement attached to Stillwell Madison’s complaint and drafted by the lender includes an agreement to handle any disputes over the contract in arbitration.

“In short, Plaintiff’s contract, authored by itself, controls the location of this proceeding and Plaintiff’s denial of such firmly establishes this lawsuit was filed for an improper, ulterior purpose,” Baker wrote.

Stillwell Madison’s lawyers at DLA Piper, Laura Sixkiller and Katherine Benveniste in the firm’s Phoenix office, were out of the office Friday and didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

A spokesperson for Girardi Keese said that the firm would let the motion to dismiss speak for itself.

Read the Motion to Dismiss: