A trustee in the Girardi Keese bankruptcy has replaced Beverly Hills attorney Ronald Richards as her special counsel two days after he was accused of conducting a “bizarre shakedown” to make way for a settlement with Erika Girardi.

In a substitution of counsel filed on Thursday, trustee Elissa Miller replaced Richards, of Ronald Richards & Associates, with Larry Gabriel, an attorney in Woodland Hills, California, at Jenkins, Mulligan & Gabriel. Miller did not give a reason for the replacement, but on Tuesday Edelson accused Richards in court filings of threatening the Chicago firm into dropping its embezzlement lawsuit in order for the trustee to reach a settlement with Erika Girardi, the estranged wife of Tom Girardi and star on the reality TV show “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”