Franco
Franco v. Dow Chemical Co.
Opinion
Lead Opinion
ORDER
The court’s published order, filed July 13, 2010, is amended as follows:
ORDER
We must decide the appropriate discipline in the case of respondents Thomas V. Girardi, Walter J. Lack, Paul A. Traina, and a junior associate in Lack’s firm. Respondents attempted to enforce a putative foreign judgment for $489 million in district court but failed. They undertook and maintained an appeal to this court although they knew, at least by the time defendants filed a motion to supplement the record in this court, that the document they offered as evidence of that judgment was spurious.
1. Background,
The factual and procedural background of the case is complicated but essentially uncontested. 1 Respondents Thomas V. Girardi and Walter J. Lack are Los Angeles-based lawyers who have practiced law together for 25 years, while maintaining separate firms. They are highly experienced and highly successful practitioners. Typically, in the cases they take on jointly, Girardi and Lack divide responsibilities between their respective law firms, Girardi & Keese (the “Girardi Firm”) and Engstrom, Lipscomb & Lack (the “Lack Firm”). In some cases, the Girardi Firm has the primary responsibility;…