who was the lawyer in the movie erin brockovich

by Delilah Wiegand 7 min read

Tom Girardi

Full Answer

What happened to the lawyer in Erin Brockovich?

Los Angles legal eagle Edward L. Masry, the often-cranky personal-injury lawyer played by Albert Finney in the 2000 Oscar-winning Julia Roberts movie Erin Brockovich, died of complications from diabetes on Monday, said his son, Louis Masry.

What is the name of the movie with Erin Brockovich?

^ "Erin Brockovich – The Movie". Erin Brockovich. Archived from the original on March 20, 2021. Retrieved August 8, 2014. ^ a b "Chasing the Frog – Erin Brockovich – Questioning the Story". Chasing the Frog.

Who does Ed Masry represent in the movie Erin Brockovich?

In the film, Ed Masry represents Erin Brockovich in the car crash case. In reality, it was his law partner, Jim Vititoe. Brockovich had never been Miss Wichita; she had been Miss Pacific Coast.

Who are the actors in the movie Brockovich?

Cast Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich Albert Finney as Edward L. Masry Aaron Eckhart as George, Erin's biker boyfriend

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Was Tom Girardi A lawyer in Erin Brockovich?

Among them was Tom Girardi. Girardi was about as famous as a lawyer can get in post-O. J. America. He was one of the lawyers brought in by Ed Masry and Erin Brockovich to help sue Pacific Gas & Electric on behalf of the residents of Hinkley, California.

Who played Tom Girardi in Erin Brockovich movie?

actor Peter CoyoteIn 'Erin Brockovich', he was portrayed as a character named Kurt Potter (played by actor Peter Coyote).

How much did Erin Brockovich lawyer make?

Masry & Vititoe, the law firm for which Brockovich was a legal clerk, received $133.6 million of that settlement, and Brockovich received $2.5 million as part of her fee. A study released in 2010 by the California Cancer Registry showed that cancer rates in Hinkley "remained unremarkable from 1988 to 2008".

Who represents Thomas Girardi?

Girardi has handled major cases against the former Lockheed Corp (now the Lockheed Martin Corp.), Pacific Gas & Electric Co, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Hollywood's seven major movie studios.

How much is Erika Jaynes net worth?

$5 millionwhat is Erika Jayne's net worth? Well, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Erika is worth $5 million, which is impressive on its own but just a fraction of how much Tom was worth before a judge froze his assets.

Was Tom Girardi a good lawyer?

Girardi in 1970 became the first attorney in California to win a $1 million-plus award in a medical malpractice case, and is known for a landmark case against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. over contaminated water in the desert community of Hinkley, which was the inspiration for the 2000 film "Erin Brockovich."

Did the residents of Hinkley get their money?

Fifteen years after the film showed triumphant residents winning a $333-million settlement with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for contaminating its water — and nearly 20 years after the settlement itself — Hinkley is emptying out, and those who stay still struggle to find resolution.

What is Tom Girardi famous for?

Tom Girardi is an American attorney. The 82-year-old is known for being a highly-successful consumer lawyer in California at his firm, Girardi & Keese. The high-powered attorney has won billions of dollars in judgments for his clients, taking on malpractice cases.

How much did Ed Masry get from the PG&E case?

Ed Masry, the flamboyant, crusading environmental lawyer portrayed by actor Albert Finney in the movie “Erin Brockovich,” which was based on Masry's landmark $333-million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for groundwater contamination in California's high desert, has died. He was 73.

Where is Thomas Girardi now?

Girardi, 82, is currently residing at an assisted-living and memory care facility in Burbank, Calif., after a late-onset Alzheimer's disease and dementia diagnosis. The disbarred lawyer has also been placed in a conservatorship that is overseen by his brother Robert.

Who wrote Erin Brockovich?

Erin Brockovich is a 2000 American biographical legal drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Susannah Grant.

How much did Erin Brockovich make in 2000?

Erin Brockovich was released on March 17, 2000, in 2,848 theaters and grossed $28.1 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $126.6 million in North America and $130.7 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $257.3 million.

What does Erin know about Charles's cousin?

Erin realizes Charles has been trying to communicate with her, and is finally able to listen to his story. Charles tells Erin he and his cousin were both employees with PG&E Hinkley. Heartbroken, he tells her his cousin has just died; dying a painful death from the poison he interacted with at PG&E.

Who is the waitress in Traffic?

Soderbergh received a separate Best Director nomination for Traffic, another film released that same year, which he won. Early in the film, the real Erin Brockovich has a cameo appearance as a waitress named Julia; the real Ed Masry also appears in the same scene.

Was Brockovich ever Miss Wichita?

Brockovich had never been Miss Wichita; she had been Miss Pacific Coast. According to Brockovich, this detail was deliberately changed by Soderbergh as he thought it was "cute" to have her be beauty queen of the region from which she came. The "not so good employee" that met Brockovich in the bar was Chuck Ebersohl.

Who was the not so good employee in the movie?

He told Erin about the documents that he and Lillian Melendez had been tasked by PG&E to destroy. Jorge Halaby, played by Aaron Eckhart in the film, along with Brockovich's ex-husband Shawn Brown alleged that she had an affair with Masry.

Who is Erin in Miss Wichita?

Erin, single mother of three, a former Miss Wichita who improbably rallies a community to take on a multi-billion-dollar corporation, is the richest role of her career, simultaneously showing off her comic, dramatic and romantic chops".

Lifestyle

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Podcasts

"Even though we cleared my calendar for the day, I was still on the phone. There was no resting, you just kept on going," Tammy Duckworth says on an episode of PEOPLE's podcast Me Becoming Mom

Storyline

Erin Brockovich-Ellis is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck. This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss.

Did you know

The real Erin Brockovich-Ellis claimed that the film was 98-99% accurate.

What was Erin Brockovich's role in the movie?

Brockovich's work in bringing litigation against Pacific Gas & Electric was the focus of the 2000 feature film, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts in the title role. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich. Erin Brockovich herself had a cameo role as a waitress named Julia R.

Where is Erin Brockovich from?

She has two brothers, Frank Jr. and Thomas (1954–1992), and a sister, Jodie. She graduated from Lawrence High School, then attended Kansas State University, in Manhattan , Kansas, and graduated with an Associate in Applied Arts Degree from Wade College in Dallas, Texas.

How much did Brockovich get paid for the case?

The case was settled in 1996 for US$ 333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit in United States history. Masry & Vititoe, the law firm for which Brockovich was a legal clerk, received $133.6 million of that settlement, and Brockovich herself received a settlement of $2 million.

Who is the waitress in the documentary Last Call at the Oasis?

Erin Brockovich herself had a cameo role as a waitress named Julia R. Brockovich had a more extensive role in the 2012 documentary Last Call at the Oasis, which focused on not only water pollution but also the overall state of water scarcity as it relates to water policy in the United States.

Where was the prime tanning lawsuit filed?

Brockovich assisted in the filing of a lawsuit against Prime Tanning Corp. of St. Joseph, Missouri in April 2009. The lawsuit claims that waste sludge from the production of leather, containing high levels of hexavalent chromium, was distributed to farmers in northwest Missouri to use as fertilizer on their fields.

Why did Kissandra Cohen sue Brockovich?

Kissandra Cohen, a lawyer in his firm, sued him for wrongful termination and sexual harassment. The same day that civil suit was filed, Brockovich’s former husband and her ex-boyfriend were arrested on suspicion of trying to extort $310,000 from Brockovich and Masry during a videotaped law office sting.

Who is Masry and Vititoe?

The long and tangled litigation ended with no convictions. In 1982, Masry joined lawyer James Vititoe to set up the Masry and Vititoe firm. By the early 1990s, Masry had begun concentrating on cases involving injuries caused by toxic material. He hired Brockovich in 1992.

The PG&E lawsuit

The class-action lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) settled in 1996 for $333 million, which was a record-breaking out of court settlement at the time. The company had dumped 370 million gallons of wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium into unlined ponds around the town of Hinkley, California.

Real Life vs Reel Life

In the film, Erin meets George because he’s revving his motorcycle engine outside of her house in California. She’s angry and informs him that she’s a broke single mom who’s been married twice when he tries to flirt with her.

Erin Brockovich testified for Ed Masry in a 2002 sexual harassment lawsuit

Two years after the movie’s success and the extortion plot, Ed Masry was brought to court over sexual harassment allegations brought by Kissandra Cohen.

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Overview

Accuracy

On her website, Brockovich says the film is "probably 98% accurate". While the general facts of the story are accurate, there are some minor discrepancies between actual events and the movie, as well as a number of controversial and disputed issues more fundamental to the case. In the film, Erin Brockovich appears to deliberately use her cleavage to seduce the water board attendant to allow her to access the documents. Brockovich has acknowledged that her cleavage may have h…

Plot

In 1993, Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother of three children who has recently been injured in a traffic accident with a doctor and is suing him. Her lawyer, Ed Masry, expects to win, but Erin's confrontational courtroom behavior under cross-examination loses her the case, and Ed will not return her phone calls afterwards. One day, he arrives at work to find her in the office, apparently working. She says that he told her things would work out and they did not, and that s…

Cast

• Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich
• Albert Finney as Edward L. Masry
• Aaron Eckhart as George, Erin's biker boyfriend
• Marg Helgenberger as Donna Jensen

Production

The film was shot over eleven weeks, five weeks of that taking place in Ventura, California.
Erin Brockovich performed well with test audiences but executives at Universal Studios were worried that audiences would be turned off by the title character's use of profane language.

Reception

Erin Brockovich was released on March 17, 2000, in 2,848 theaters and grossed $28.1 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $126.6 million in North America and $130.7 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $257.3 million.
On review website Rotten Tomatoes Erin Brockovich holds an approval rating of 85% based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The critics consensus reads, "Taking full advantage o…

External links

• Erin Brockovich at IMDb
• Erin Brockovich at the TCM Movie Database
• Erin Brockovich at AllMovie
• Erin Brockovich at Box Office Mojo

Overview

Erin Brockovich (born Pattee; June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk, consumer advocate, and environmental activist who, despite her lack of education in the law, was instrumental in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination in a town in California with the help of attorney Ed Masry in 1993. Their successful lawsuit was the subject of the Oscar-winning film, Erin Brockovich (2000), starring Julia Roberts as Brockovich and Albert …

Early life

Brockovich was born Erin Pattee in Lawrence, Kansas, the daughter of Betty Jo (born O'Neal; c. 1923–2008), a journalist, and Frank Pattee (1924–2011), an industrial engineer and football player. She has two brothers, Frank Jr. and Thomas (1954–1992), and a sister, Jodie. She graduated from Lawrence High School, then attended Kansas State University, in Manhattan, Kansas, and graduated with an Associate in Applied Arts Degree from Wade College in Dallas, Texas.

Pacific Gas & Electric litigation

The case (Anderson, et al. v. Pacific Gas & Electric, file BCV 00300) alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium (also written as "chromium VI", "Cr-VI" or "Cr-6") in the town of Hinkley, near Barstow in southern California. At the center of the case was a facility, the Hinkley compressor station, built in 1952 as a part of a natural-gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium in a cooling tow…

Other litigation

Working with Edward L. Masry, a lawyer based in Thousand Oaks, California, Brockovich went on to participate in other anti-pollution lawsuits. One suit accused the Whitman Corporation of chromium contamination in Willits, California. Another, which listed 1,200 plaintiffs, alleged contamination near PG&E's Kettleman Hills compressor station in Kings County, California, along t…

Awards

• Honorary Doctor of Laws and commencement speaker at Lewis & Clark Law School, Portland, Oregon, in May 2005
• Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters and commencement speaker at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California, on May 5, 2007
• Honorary Master of Arts, Business Communication, from Jones International University, Centennial, Colorado

Movies and television

Brockovich's work in bringing litigation against Pacific Gas & Electric was the focus of the 2000 feature film, Erin Brockovich, starring Julia Roberts in the title role. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Writing in a Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Roberts won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich. Erin Brockovich herself ha…

Books and articles

Brockovich's first book, Take It from Me: Life's a Struggle But You Can Win (ISBN 978-0071383790), was published in 2001. A second book, Superman's Not Coming, was released on August 25, 2020.
In 2021, Brockovich wrote about hormone-disrupting chemicals (such as PFAS) decimating human fertility at an alarming rate.

Personal life

Brockovich has three children: a son Matthew and a daughter Katie from her first marriage to Shawn Brown, and a daughter Elizabeth "Beth" from her second marriage to Steven Brockovich. Her third husband was an actor and country music DJ, Eric L. Ellis. As of 2016, Brockovich resides in Agoura Hills, California, in a house she purchased in 1996 with her US$2.5 million bonus after the Hinkley settlement.