Girardi Keese Trustee Countersued by Former Firm Attorney

A former California State Bar president countersued the trustee for the Girardi Keese LLP bankruptcy estate in a fight over recovering fees for creditors of the defunct firm.

Howard Miller, an intellectual property attorney, countersued Chapter 7 trustee Elissa Miller claiming indemnity, including reimbursement for costs incurred under California Labor Code Section 2802. The law requires California employers pay for “all necessary expenditures or losses incurred by the employee in direct consequence of the discharge of his or her duties, or of his or her obedience to the directions of the employer, even though unlawful, unless the employee, at the time of obeying the directions, believed them to be unlawful.”

• “All of the conduct for which the Complaint seeks to impose liability upon Howard Miller is conduct which occurred in the course and scope of his work at Girardi Keese and which was done exclusively to benefit Girardi Keese and with the express agreement and oftentimes at the express request of Girardi Keese,” the countersuit filed Aug. 11 said
• Howard Miller was brought into Girardi Keese in 2002 and left at age 80 in January 2018, the filing said
• The bankruptcy trustee sued Miller last January amid a slew of adversary proceedings filed against former attorneys, relatives, and others
• A status conference is scheduled Tuesday before Judge Barry Russell, US Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, who is overseeing the bankruptcies of the firm and Thomas Girardi

The case is Miller v. Miller, Bankr. C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-ap-01041, 8/11/23.