Edelson PC, the Chicago-based law firm that was local counsel in the Lion Air litigation, in July filed a racketeering lawsuit against Girardi Keese, some of its former attorneys, litigation funders, and the Girardis, alleging they operated a long-running Ponzi scheme.

“The Complaint paints a picture of a reverse Robin Hood,” Nora Freeman Engstrom, a Stanford Law School professor who specializes in legal ethics, said in an email. “It depicts a firm stealing from the injured, grieving, and destitute to give to the rich, to fund Tom and Erika Girardi’s lavish lifestyle.”