9th Circuit Suspends Top Plaintiffs Lawyer for 6 Months

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has suspended California plaintiffs’ attorney Walter Lack from practicing before the 9th Circuit for six months due to filing fraudulent appellate briefs. The penalty is even greater than the one recommended by the court’s independent prosecutor because Lack and the other punished attorneys “chose to remain willfully blind to the fact that they were making false statements.”

The disciplinary actions stems from a case handled by Lack and his frequent co-counsel on big-ticket class actions, Los Angeles attorney and radio host Thomas Girardi. The pair represented hundreds of plaintiffs to claim to have gotten sick from pesticides in Central America. The plaintiff’s Central American attorney filed suit – and procured a $489 million judgment – against Dole Food Corp. The problem is that the proper defendant and the one they should have sued is Dole Food Co.

Lack’s firm, Engstrom Lipscomb & Lack, lead enforcement of the judgment in the U.S., but Engstrom lawyers relied on a series of documents that they knew to be false to cover up the underlying error and pursue the damages claim against Dole Food Co. The U.S. District Court dismissed the case, noting the problem. Two Engstrom lawyers, Sean Topp and Paul Traina, then filed the offending appellate briefs with the 9th Circuit, including both Lack and Girardi’s signatures as counsel on the brief. Topp, a recent law grad, tried to talk his superiors out of pursuing the case once Dole’s response briefs came in, but Lack and Traina overruled him. Girardi’s law partner, Howard Miller, currently president of the California Bar, was set to argue the appeal, but when he reviewed the filings, he recommended that they immediately drop the appeal and Girardi agreed.

Lack and Traina both received a six-month suspension from the 9th Circuit, plus Lack will pay $250,000 in sanctions while Train will pay $10,000. Girardi received only a formal reprimand and will pay $125,000 in sanctions; even though he did not write the brief, he also did not read them before allowing his name to be signed to them. Topp was privately reprimanded and will pay $5,000 in sanctions. The Court sanctioned Lack more aggressively than the others primarily due to his long career: “Substantial legal experience may also be an aggravating factor, because an experienced attorney should know better than to engage in conduct that merits discipline.”

It is still unknown how the state bar will respond and penalize the disciplined attorneys.

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