Maria Camarda loved having cash to burn.

She also had a penchant for designer clothing, famous footballers and, most of all, gambling.

But to fund her lavish lifestyle — which was well-documented online and included rubbing shoulders with West Coast Eagles stars and partying at clubs and in Las Vegas — the law firm office manager was siphoning millions of dollars from the dead.

For seven years, Camarda stole money from deceased estates held in a trust account at Fremantle firm Frank Unmack and Cullen to pay for her clothes, mortgage and her pathological gambling addiction.

She was jailed last year for 6½ years over the multimillion-dollar theft and now Camarda’s boss, the law firm’s principal Anthony Pass, is left to pick up the pieces — including a near $3 million lawsuit filed against him.

A writ was filed in the Supreme Court last week by the Legal Contribution Trust in a bid to recover the $2.8 million that was moved from the law firm’s accounts into Camarda’s pockets.

It alleges that in a “breach of trust”, the law firm “failed to pay or deliver trust money and trust property that was received by the practice”.

“Those failures arose from acts or omissions of the bookkeeper employed by the practice that involved dishonesty,” the document alleges.

Camarda pleaded guilty to two counts of stealing as a servant.

Her District Court sentencing hearing was told that the 50-year-old began working at the firm after leaving school aged 16.

She was able to hide her incessant pilfering for years, with the theft starting after she began to spend more and more time at the casino in 2007.

She supplemented her income by writing cheques to herself from the firm’s trust account on 379 occasions, stealing as much as $41,000 at a time.

Camarda continued to steal even after she borrowed more than $400,000 from family, friends and banks and put the money back into the trust account.

“This took place over a seven-year period of time in circumstances where you were in a position of trust,” Judge Michael Bowden said in sentencing.

“You clearly betrayed that trust and at the end of the day there were real victims.”

The writ reveals the money was taken from 45 deceased estates.

It was paid back by WA’s Solicitors’ Guarantee Fund — a program designed to compensate clients who suffer monetary losses as a result of stealing or fraudulent behaviour within a law firm.

The Legal Contribution Trust, which administers and controls that fund, says the money should be repaid.

As well as compensation, the organisation is seeking “an account or accounts of the funds held on trust by the practice for the claimants”, interest and costs.

Mr Pass was contacted for comment.