Superstar attorney Mark Geragos has been ordered to pay $100,000 as part of the case that saw disgraced lawyer Michael Avenatti jailed after a jury found Wednesday that he gave Avenatti “substantial assistance or encouragement.”
Stormy Daniels lawyer Avenatti famously attempted to blackmail Nike in 2019 while representing basketball coach, Gary Franklin.
Avenatti brought Geragos — who has represented Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Winona Ryder, and the Menéndez brothers among many others — onto the case, and Geragos was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the government’s case against Avenatti.
Franklin — who never saw any money from Nike, possibly because of the blackmail attempt — later filed a civil suit against Geragos for his part in the mess.
On Wednesday, the jury in the civil suit found that Geragos “had actual knowledge that Avenatti was committing wrongdoing” against Franklin, and that Geragos “provided knowlingly substantial assistance or encouragement to Avenatti in committing wrongdoing.”
It also found that he breached the professional standard of care or duty of loyalty” to Franklin.
But the jury decided that, overall, Geragos’s actions weren’t a “substantial factor in causing harm to Franklin.”
A rep for Geragos told Page Six the decision “amounts to about as close to vindication as one can get,” adding “we’re satisfied with the result and grateful the jury… got it right.”
Franklin’s attorney, Trent Copeland, told us, “Geragos has spent much of his career mastering the art of spin—but there’s no spinning what this jury just found. He may not have faced criminal charges, but a civil jury found him liable nonetheless.” He added, “No reasonable attorney would celebrate a verdict like that. He can’t run from this.”
Avenatti was sentenced to 30 months in prison for the extortion attempt, plus various other prison sentences for embezzlement from various clients including porn star Daniels. He got a total of around 20 years.