Law of the Jungle: The $19B legal battle over oil in the Rain Forest

In his book "Law of the Jungle," Journalist Paul Barrett writes about the $19B legal battle over oil in the rain forest and the lawyer who'd stop at nothing to win.

February 8, 2016
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Location
Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
Sponsored by
Dickey Center
Audience
Public
More information
Lee McDavid
603-646-1278

Paul Barrett's book "Law of the Jungle" is about Steven Donziger, a self-styled social activist and Harvard educated lawyer, who signed on to a budding class action lawsuit against multinational Texaco (which later merged with Chevron to become the third-largest corporation in America). The suit sought reparations for the Ecuadorian peasants and tribes people whose lives were affected by decades of oil production near their villages and fields.  During twenty years of legal hostilities in federal courts in Manhattan and remote provincial tribunals in the Ecuadorian jungle, Donziger and Chevron’s lawyers followed fierce no-holds-barred rules. Donziger, a larger-than-life, loud-mouthed showman, proved himself a master orchestrator of the media, Hollywood, and public opinion. He cajoled and coerced Ecuadorian judges on the theory that his noble ends justified any means of persuasion. And in the end, he won an unlikely victory, a $19 billion judgment against Chevon--the biggest environmental damages award in history.  But the company refused to surrender or compromise. Instead, Chevron targeted Donziger personally, and its counter-attack revealed damning evidence of his politicking and manipulation of evidence. Suddenly the verdict, and decades of Donziger’s single-minded pursuit of the case, began to unravel.  

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Paul M. Barrett is an assistant managing editor and senior writer at Bloomberg Businessweek, a position he assumed in September 2005. He is responsible for writing articles and cover stories on subjects ranging from the environment to mass litigation to gun control and the big business of college and professional sports.

Prior to joining Bloomberg Businessweek, Barrett was an editor and legal affairs reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He held the positions of Supreme Court correspondent, Page One special projects editor, and Page One news editor. He was previously a staff writer and editor for Washington Monthly.

Barrett is the author, most recently, of Law of the Jungle, which tells the story of the Chevron oil pollution case in Ecuador. His earlier books are the New York Times bestseller, GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun (2012), American Islam: The Struggle for the Soul of a Religion (2007), and The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America (1999).

Barrett is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds an A.B. from Harvard College. He teaches as an adjunct professor at New York University Law School.

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Sponsored by the Institute of Arctic Studies at the Dickey Center for International Understanding. Free and open to all. 

Location
Haldeman 41 (Kreindler Conference Hall)
Sponsored by
Dickey Center
Audience
Public
More information
Lee McDavid
603-646-1278