Some See Career Conundrum in Law Firms' Energy Work
With growing awareness of the threat of climate change, law professors said environmentally minded students are paying close attention to the fossil-fuel matters being handled by potential Big Law employers.
July 12, 2018 at 02:11 PM
4 minute read
Image: Fotolia Naomi Ages was happy to land at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in New York after graduating from law school at the University of Southern California in 2010. The global financial crisis was still roiling the legal industry, and while some classmates saw their start dates deferred, she was able to start right on schedule at the firm where she worked as a summer associate. And while Ages went to law school with a goal to pursue public interest work, she wanted to return to the East Coast, and nonprofits and NGOs had few resources for cross-country recruiting. It was only after she started looking for a job outside of Big Law, specifically in the area of environmental advocacy, that she realized her time at the firm might pose a challenge. While Ages ultimately landed a position as a legal adviser with Greenpeace International, her job search took her two years. She suspects the firm's high-profile work successfully defending Chevron Corp. against multibillion-dollar pollution claims in Ecuador might have played a part in the delay. Naomi Ages. “My best guess is that there was some skepticism. Doing a quick Google search would have revealed a lot,” she said. “But I don't know if that's specific to Gibson Dunn or any law firm.” Some law school professors are concerned enough about the potential stigma that they are advising environmentally conscious students to weigh the consequences of a career stop at firms with a heavy roster of fossil fuel clients. Potential recruits, meanwhile, may be put off by certain firms' aggressive tactics on behalf of their energy clients. Not Tobacco In spite of scientific predictions that climate change driven by human activity is likely to send global temperatures upwards by several degrees by the end of the century, survey data presents mixed messages over how salient the issue is for millennials. "Energy work broadly defined, including representation of utilities and even major oil and natural gas companies, has not yet seemed to trigger that same reaction in students looking for private sector employment in the Big Law firms, which frequently have a very wide client base that include that industry among many others," he said in an email. Hunton & Williams Students do tend to identify coal more specifically as antithetical to their personal concerns with climate and sustainability and do seem to shy away from firms with significant practices representing the coal industry, or at least seek assurances they can avoid those clients," Lazarus said. They realize that if an energy company is a big client of the firm, it's going to be much harder to do a thing that could be perceived as a business conflict, let alone a true legal conflict that involves adverse position," Sivas said. continuing New Generation It was just really interesting the number of students who are saying, 'I don't have a big environmental background, but I can't believe what [Ryan] Zinke, [Scott] Pruitt and [Donald] Trump are doing," she said. Aggressive Advocacy Kasowitz Torres Benson sing law firms to silence protest. It's a really troubling trend," she said. "Had I been working in Big Law, it would have been disturbing." Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison The new, more aggressive, litigation tactics are off-putting to many current students," Lazarus said, specifically pointing to attacks on state AGs and environmentalists over their suits against industry. A Call to the Bar Pepper Hamilton "I'm concerned that law firms could be induced in the pursuit of their own economic interest to take positions that are inimical to human society," he said.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllUS Law Firm Leasing Up Nearly 30% Through Q3, With a Growing Number of Firms Staying in Place
3 minute readPolsinelli's Revenue and Profits Surge Amid Partner De-Equitizations, Retirements
5 minute readAI Expected to Transform Legal Field Even More as Technologies Evolve
Trending Stories
- 1Cars Reach Record Fuel Economy but Largely Fail to Meet Biden's EPA Standard, Agency Says
- 2How Cybercriminals Exploit Law Firms’ Holiday Vulnerabilities
- 3DOJ Asks 5th Circuit to Publish Opinion Upholding Gun Ban for Felon
- 4GEO Group Sued Over 2 Wrongful Deaths
- 5Revenue Up at Homegrown Texas Firms Through Q3, Though Demand Slipped Slightly
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250