Plaintiff chided for personal attack on defense attorney

LOS ANGELES -- A superior court judge admonished the plaintiff for leveling "personal attacks" during a shouting match with the defense attorney Wednesday in the trial over a lawsuit claiming Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP breached its fiduciary duty when it represented the disbarred British solicitor in an invasion of privacy suit against a tabloid.

"Please tell your client I do not expect an outburst like that again," Judge Terry A. Green told the plaintiff's attorney, Becky S. James of James & Associates, "Personal attacks on counsel is a line I will not allow to be crossed." Shahrokh Mireskandari v. Edwards Wildman Palmer, BC517799 (L.A. Sup. Ct., filed Aug 9, 2013).

Plaintiff Shahrokh Mireskandari had shouted that defense attorney John M. Moscarino of Valle Makoff LLP had illicitly contacted attorneys who had represented the plaintiff and told them he was not worth representing.

"If I just heard that correctly, you've just accused counsel of conduct that could get him disbarred," Green said, adding that he would instruct the jury to disregard the remarks.

Moscarino said he did contact certain attorneys, but did so properly.

The exchange began after Moscarino loudly told Mireskandari to answer a question yes or no during cross-examination regarding a previous ruling against him.

The question of who was financing the various lawsuits Mireskandari has brought against his former attorneys was a major question for Green, who speculated in a hearing after the jury left on Tuesday that Mireskandari might not be financially liable for the legal costs he has incurred.

"There's a question I have as to whether he's a plaintiff," Green told James, adding, "You better have a good argument because these aren't concerns you want me to have."

James interjected that whether Mireskandari owed money for his multiple lawsuits to his wife's firm, Baxendale-Walker LLP, or some other party was immaterial in the current legal malpractice case.

Green disagreed. "It is because if the others aren't going to demand payment, it's illusory," Green said, adding, "This is not a speculative damages case."

Moscarino said, "I think we're entitled to know who this Baxendale-Walker guy is."

The jury previously heard Mireskandari testify that his wife, also a British solicitor, handled all payments through the law firm she owned, Baxendale-Walker LLP.

Paul Baxendale-Walker, who sometimes goes under the pseudonym Paul Chaplin, is a British entertainment personality and legal author.

During the conference outside the jury's presence Tuesday, Moscarino said: "On its face, that story is preposterous," in reference to the testimony that Shahrokh Mireskandari's wife, Saeedeh Mirshahi, would be the owner of a firm named after somebody else. "There's something that's fundamentally wrong," he concluded.

Mireskandari previously testified to his ignorance of the various financial agreements his wife had or hadn't entered into but repeatedly expressed that he and his wife would ultimately be liable for his legal fees. He testified Wednesday that his wife is Baxendale-Walker's attorney and she has his power of attorney.

The solicitor was disbarred after the Daily Mail ran a series of stories in 2008 alleging he fabricated legal qualifications and hid criminal convictions.

He sued Edwards Wildman Palmer, alleging the firm overcharged him and misrepresented its expertise in the libel suit that eventually shifted into an invasion of privacy case against the Daily Mail.

Wednesday's redirect of Mireskandari failed to provide any insight into the funding sources of his litigation. It instead largely focused on the financial damages he allegedly incurred in pursuit of his case against the Daily Mail.

At James' behest, Mireskandari wrote out the math of how much he had paid each of four law firms in connection with the anti-SLAPP motion the Daily Mail brought in response to his lawsuit against the paper. He eventually arrived at the figure of $523,299 for that portion and $636,370 in total for the lawsuit.

"I had an option of going to another state where anti-SLAPP doesn't exist," Mireskandari testified in reference to Virginia. He said he was never advised to move his case there..

James did address the issue of repayment but continued to work from the premise that Mirshahi paid her husband's legal fees. In response to James' question of how he would repay his wife, Mireskandari teared up on the stand, discussing his mother, who he said was a famous Iranian singer before her death.

Through her legacy, he said, he maintained a close relationship with influential figures in Iran and the Iranian diaspora. He also said he might stand to inherit land in Iran upon the death of his father, who he said might not live through the year. "My name was on that property," Mireskandari said, adding, "The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, if you're not there, they just take it."

Mireskandari sketched out a business plan in which he would put on major music concerts in Iran by leveraging his alleged close relationships with figures including the family of the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in an Islamic revolution in 1979.

"The key to it is to get the singers to come for free," Mireskandari said, "If I can pull off three or four concerts a year, it will be very, very lucrative."