Frega: ‘Rambo Lawyer’ or Bully? : Inquiry: Trial lawyer’s skill was well known, but detractors say he would renege on lucrative referral fees. The investigation into his influence with three judges didn’t surprise many.

When a case called for a “Rambo lawyer,” the unyielding gladiator who brings in the big verdict almost by force of will, Pat Frega was the man.

The La Jolla lawyer’s multimillion dollar victories, flamboyant style and tough talk have earned him a reputation as the kind of attorney that plaintiffs want when the stakes are high and the odds are long.

“He’s the Rambo lawyer,” said former partner Dick Verlasky, who practiced with Frega for most of 1984. “He’s very aggressive. He’s very forceful. That’s the way he wants to be, and that’s how he’s become very successful.”

But those same tactics have given Frega, now thrust into the limelight by reports that a state commission is probing whether he traded gifts for favors from judges, an equal reputation as an amoral bully among his numerous detractors.

“I don’t trust the guy,” said a local attorney who contends that Frega tried to withhold a lucrative fee after he referred a client to Frega. “Any time a guy tries to do that to me when he made a pretty good chunk of change for two months of intensive work . . . my reaction is ‘Hey, this guy’s trying to screw me.’ ”

In a separate 1988 case, Frega agreed to pay a $5,500 settlement to the law firm of Jacoby & Meyers, in a dispute over failure to pay referral fees on five personal injury cases, according to court records.

“He’s a New York, New Jersey street-fighter-kind-of-guy. He comes across in (legal articles) like he’s trying to be some kind of avenging knight, but he’s not that at all,” said the attorney, who, like all of Frega’s detractors, demanded that his identity be disguised.

It is still an open question whether the state Commission on Judicial Performance will level charges of wrongdoing against Frega or any of the three judges who are under investigation for allegedly giving him favorable legal treatment.

But, in the legal community, Frega’s relationships with Superior Court Judges Michael I. Greer, G. Dennis Adams and James Malkus were well-known and often the subject of discussion.

Attorneys interviewed for this story said that Frega appeared to have complete access to Greer, with whom he socialized virtually every week.

Frega’s law firm has represented Greer’s wife, June, in two separate lawsuits, and Frega hired Greer’s son, Jeffrey, as an associate attorney right out of law school in 1984--a relationship that lasted only a few months, according to Verlasky.

Frega is a close friend of Adams, with whom he is writing a book on the fall of France during World War II. He socializes with Malkus continually. All three judges have attended San Diego Bay party cruises hosted by Frega. According to disclosure forms, Frega has bestowed gifts on the three jurists: $1,520 worth over five years to Greer; $450 worth to Malkus in 1985, and $1,400 worth to Adams in 1987 and 1988.

But he has also tried cases before Malkus and Adams--winning a tentative $4-million verdict from Malkus in a non-jury trial last October, a $3.2-million verdict in a jury trial in 1989 and a $5-million verdict from Adams in a non-jury verdict six years ago.

A former Frega associate has told commission investigators that he was present when Frega telephoned Greer and appeared to ask that a particular case be assigned to a specific judge.

To some who know Greer and Frega, it was not a surprise when their relationship surfaced as the subject of a state probe. But most are quick to add that they have no solid proof of unethical or illegal behavior.

“I would speculate that (as presiding judge during 1988-89) Greer probably assigned cases to Malkus because Frega thought Malkus might be a favorable judge to hear those cases,” said one attorney. “To say it’s any more than speculation is difficult.”

Despite attempts to contact them, Frega and Greer have declined interviews. On Friday, Greer’s bailiff also refused to allow a Times reporter to review court filings in a 1989 case that Frega won before a jury in Malkus’ courtroom.

Known for his flamboyance inside and outside the courtroom, the 47-year-old Frega has amassed enough wealth to purchase a 5,000-square-foot Rancho Santa Fe home valued at more than $1.4 million.

A former Marine who was wounded in combat, Frega is a martial arts expert who hung nunchakus on his office wall and had a skull on his huge kidney-shaped rosewood desk, Verlasky said. His Christmas card last year featured a barefoot Santa delivering a martial arts kick to the stomach of a nerdy guy in a blue suit.

“To get justice from insurance companies, manufacturers and bankers, you have to use commando-type tactics,” he told a Times reporter then. “We go to war for our clients.”

He is also, by virtually all accounts, an outstanding trial lawyer.

“I know him to be a top-flight litigator and somebody who really works for his clients,” said attorney Browne Greene, who tried a case in Los Angeles with Frega.

“I’ve been around a lot of lawyers the last 26 years,” said Verlasky, Frega’s former partner. “I’ve never been around a lawyer who works as hard as he does.

“He is the most prepared lawyer in trial I have ever seen,” Verlasky added.

But more than one attorney spoke of battles with Frega over money, disputes that arose after they believed they had agreements with him. Saying they feared what Frega might do, they insisted that details of the disputes not be disclosed.