Students from Harvard Law School on Jan. 15 disrupted a recruiting reception in Cambridge, Massachusetts, hosted by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and demanded the firm stop representing Exxon in climate change litigation. (Courtesy photo)

 

Harvard Law students are taking Big Law to task yet again—this time over representing Exxon Mobil in climate change litigation.

A group of 30 first-year law students on Wednesday disrupted a recruiting reception hosted by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, which has been representing the oil giant in a series of lawsuits tied to climate change. After unfurling a banner that read #DropExxon, the students spent 15 minutes chanting and singing before leaving the reception—held at a restaurant near the school's Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus—and joining other climate change protesters outside.

"We are here tonight because this is a do-or-die moment in human history," said protest organizer Aaron Reganberg, a first-year Harvard law student, during the action, which was streamed live on Facebook. "We have just a few years left to address the climate crisis. That means stopping corporate polluters from continuing to block climate actions and evading accountability for their malfeasance."

A Paul Weiss spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday, nor did a spokesman for Harvard Law School.

"We came today to send a clear message to the partners at Paul Weiss that, as long as they are working to shield the corporate polluters wrecking our climate, we won't be working for them," said first-year Harvard Law student Carly Margolis, noting that the firm doesn't highlight its work for Exxon when it recruits law students.

Reganberg estimated that about 100 law students, including the protesters, attended the event. The protesters were dressed in business attire, blending in with the other attendees.

The protest Wednesday was similar to the law student movement to end the use of mandatory arbitration at law firms, which gained momentum in 2018 after a group of Harvard Law students founded the People's Parity Project. That organization has grown to include chapters on eight law campuses.

The Project's initial tactic was to single out law firms requiring summer associates and associates to submit to mandatory arbitration, then encourage classmates to boycott those firms during the recruiting season. And a number of firms, including Kirkland & Ellis and Sidley Austin, dropped mandatory arbitration amid the student pressure.

Paul Weiss is representing Exxon in multiple cases related to climate change. In December, A New York judge dismissed the state attorney general's securities fraud case against Exxon, which alleged that the oil company mislead investors over climate-change related disclosures. A similar case is pending in Massachusetts.

Protest organizers said they plan to continue to pressure Paul Weiss to stop representing Exxon and are working to coordinate efforts with students at other law schools.

"I've been at Harvard for almost three years, and in my experience, direct action like this is incredibly rare at our school, with some notable exceptions," said third-year student Hannah Perls. "The fact that students are overcoming the culture of complacency that dominates law school is truly a big deal, and gives me hope that real change is possible."