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Robert Bilott (born August 2, 1965) is an American environmental attorney from
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Bilott is known for the lawsuits against
DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
on behalf of plaintiffs injured by waste dumped in rural communities in West Virginia. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals
perfluorooctanoic acid Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; conjugate base perfluorooctanoate; also known colloquially as C8, for its 8 carbon chain structure) is a perfluorinated carboxylic acid produced and used worldwide as an industrial surfactant in chemical processes an ...
(PFOA) and
perfluorooctanesulfonic acid Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) (conjugate base perfluorooctanesulfonate) is a chemical compound having an eight-carbon fluorocarbon chain and a sulfonic acid functional group and thus a perfluorosulfonic acid. It is an anthropogenic (man-ma ...
(PFOS). Bilott's litigation was the foundation for a memoir titled '' Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont.'' He became of increasing media attention in the late 2010s and became more visible through the 2019 film ''Dark Waters'' (2019 film) and 2018 documentary ''
The Devil We Know ''The Devil We Know'' is a 2018 investigative documentary film by director Stephanie Soechtig regarding allegations of health hazards from perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8), a key ingredient used in manufacturing Teflon, and DuPont ...
'' documented his legal battles with Dupont. This public attention led to a number of awards, including the international
Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...
.


Early life

Bilott was born on August 2, 1965, in
Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
. Bilott's father served in the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
, and Bilott spent his childhood on several air force bases. Because the family moved frequently, Bilott attended eight different schools before graduating from Fairborn High School in
Fairborn, Ohio Fairborn is a city in Greene County, Ohio, United States. The population was 34,620 at the 2020 census. Fairborn is a suburb of Dayton, and part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the only city in the world named Fairborn, a port ...
. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and urban studies from the New College of Florida. He then earned a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from the
Ohio State University Moritz College of Law The Michael E. Moritz College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the Ohio State University, a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1891, the school is located in Drinko Hall on the main campus of the ...
in 1990.


Career

Bilott was admitted to the
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...
in 1990 and began his law practice at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in
Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
For eight years he worked almost exclusively for large corporate clients and his specialty was defending chemical companies.The Lawyer Who became Dupont's worst nightmare
New York Times, 6 January 2016
He became a partner at the firm in 1998.


Initial actions against DuPont

Bilott represented Wilbur Tennant of
Parkersburg, West Virginia Parkersburg is a city in and the county seat of Wood County, West Virginia, Wood County, West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Little Kanawha River, Little Kanawha rivers, it is the state's fourth-largest city and ...
whose cattle were dying. The farm was downstream from a landfill where
DuPont DuPont de Nemours, Inc., commonly shortened to DuPont, is an American multinational chemical company first formed in 1802 by French-American chemist and industrialist Éleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours. The company played a major role in ...
had been dumping hundreds of tons of
perfluorooctanoic acid Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; conjugate base perfluorooctanoate; also known colloquially as C8, for its 8 carbon chain structure) is a perfluorinated carboxylic acid produced and used worldwide as an industrial surfactant in chemical processes an ...
. In the summer of 1999, Bilott filed a federal suit against DuPont in the
United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia The United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia (in case citations, S.D. W. Va.) is a federal court in the Fourth Circuit (except for patent claims and claims against the U.S. government under the Tucker Act, which are ...
. In response, DuPont advised that DuPont and the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
would commission a study of the farmer's property, conducted by three veterinarians chosen by DuPont and three chosen by the Environmental Protection Agency. When the report was released, it blamed the Tennants for the dying cattle claiming that poor husbandry was responsible: "poor nutrition, inadequate veterinary care and lack of fly control." After Bilott discovered that thousands of tons of DuPont's PFOA had been dumped into the landfill next to the Tennants' property and that DuPont's PFOA was contaminating the surrounding community's water supply, DuPont settled the Tennants' case. In August 2001, Bilott filed a class action lawsuit against DuPont on behalf of the approximately 70,000 people in West Virginia and Ohio with PFOA-contaminated drinking water, which was settled in September 2004, with class benefits valued at over $300 million, including DuPont agreeing to install filtration plants in the six affected water districts and dozens of impacted private wells, a cash award of $70 million, and provisions for future medical monitoring to be paid by DuPont up to $235 million, if an independent science panel confirmed "probable links" between PFOA in the drinking water and human disease. After the independent scientific panel jointly selected by the parties (but required under the settlement to be paid for by DuPont) found that there was a probable link between drinking PFOA and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia, and ulcerative colitis, Bilott began opening individual personal-injury lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of affected users of the Ohio and West Virginia water supplies, which by 2015 numbered over 3,500. After losing the first three for $19.7 million, in 2017 DuPont agreed to settle the remainder of the then-pending cases for $671.7 million. Dozens of additional cases filed after the 2017 settlement were settled in 2021 for an additional $83 million (announced in conjunction with a $4 billion settlement between DuPont and its spin-off, Chemours, over
PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are synthetic organofluorine chemical compounds that have multiple fluorine atoms attached to an alkyl chain. An early definition, from 2011, required that they contain at least one perfluoroalkyl mo ...
liabilities), bringing the total settlement value in the personal injury cases for those exposed to PFOA in their drinking water to over $753 million.


Subsequent actions

In 2018, Bilott filed a new case seeking new studies and testing of the larger group of PFAS chemicals on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of everyone in the United States who has PFAS chemicals in their blood, against several PFAS manufacturers, including 3M, DuPont, and
Chemours Chemours (, ) is an American chemical company that was founded in July 2015 as a spin-off from DuPont. It has its corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, United States. History In October 2013, DuPont announced that it was planning to ...
. This new litigation is ongoing . In March 2022, the federal court overseeing the case certified the case to proceed as a class action on behalf of millions of people with PFAS in their blood.


Media notice

In 2016, Bilott's story was the focus of a featured cover story by Nathaniel Rich in the ''
New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'', entitled, "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare." Rich's story was later published in his book, ''Second Nature'' (2021). Bilott's work was also featured in extensive articles in ''
The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' ("Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg") and ''
The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'' (multi-part The Teflon Toxin series). Robert Bilott is the author of the acclaimed memoir '' Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont'', published in 2019 by Atria Books. The audio book version is narrated by
Jeremy Bobb Jeremy Bobb (born May 13, 1981) is an American actor who has appeared on stage, television and in feature films. He had a recurring role in CBS's 2013 drama ''Hostages'' as White House Chief of Staff Quintin Creasy and co-starred as Herman Barro ...
with the first chapter narrated by
Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
. Bilott's story also became the basis for '' Dark Waters'', a 2019 film starring
Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
as Bilott, and
Anne Hathaway Anne Jacqueline Hathaway (born November 12, 1982) is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, she was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2 ...
as Bilott's wife, Sarah Barlage. The story is also featured in the feature-length documentary ''
The Devil We Know ''The Devil We Know'' is a 2018 investigative documentary film by director Stephanie Soechtig regarding allegations of health hazards from perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8), a key ingredient used in manufacturing Teflon, and DuPont ...
''; the Swedish documentary, ''The Toxic Compromise''; was the subject of the poem, ''Watershed'' by U.S. Poet Laureate
Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith (born April 16, 1972) is an American poet and educator. She served as the 22nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She has published four collections of poetry, winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 volume ''Life ...
; is the subject of the "Toxic Waters" episode of the multi-part feature documentary, ''Parched'', which aired on the National Geographic TV channel in 2017. He is also the subject for the song and video "Deep in the Water" by The Gary Douglas Band, and the song "Blank" / "Worker" by emo revival band
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die is an American indie rock band formed in Willimantic, Connecticut, in 2009. Following the release of several EPs and Split album, splits featuring original lead singer Thomas Diaz, t ...
. He also appears in ''Devil Put The Coal In The Ground'', a 2022 documentary about the suffering and devastation brought on by the coal industry and its decline. Bilott also authored the foreword of the book ''Forever Chemicals Environmental, Economic, and Social Equity Concerns with PFAS in the Environment'', published in 2021 by CRC Press. He also appears in the film released in 2023 entitled, ''Burned: Protecting the Protectors'', which focuses on PFAS exposures among firefighters.


Accolades

In 2017, Bilott received the international
Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award is an international award to "honour and support those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today." The prize was established in 1980 by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob v ...
, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize," for his decades of work on PFAS chemical contamination issues, and was featured on a stamp issued in Austria, commemorating the award. In 2020, Bilott was part of a “Fight Forever Chemicals” social media and outreach campaign that was a Winner in Entertainment and a Finalist in Global Campaign, Media Partnership for the social media Shorty Awards. “Fight Forever Chemicals” also received a Gold Distinction in Environment and Sustainability. Bilott serves on the board of directors for Less Cancer, the board of trustees for Green Umbrella, and served on the alumni board for New College of Florida from 2018-2021. In 2021, Bilott received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from New College of Florida and an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from
The Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publi ...
's Environmental Science Graduate Program. He is also a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina, and a lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health Sciences.


Awards and recognition

*2005Trial Lawyer of the Year. Presented by The Trial Lawyers For Public Justice Foundation. *2006Super Lawyer Rising Star. Selected by Cincinnati Magazine. *2008100 Top Trial Lawyers from Ohio. Named by American Trial Lawyers Association. *2008Present Leading Lawyer Honoree. Name by Cincy Magazine Environmental Law. *2010Present Honoree, Environmental Law, Litigation. Named by Best Lawyers in America. *2011Present Top Local Plaintiff Litigation Star Honoree. Presented by Benchmark Plaintiff. *2014Clarence Darrow Award Honoree. Presented by Mass Tort Bar. *2016Giraffe Hero Commendation Honoree. Presented by Giraffe Heroes Project. *2016Joined the board of the Next Generation Choices Foundation (a.k.a. Less Cancer) "to support its mission in championing education and policy that will help prevent cancer." *2017Present Class Action Honoree. Presented by Kentucky Super Lawyers. *2017Right Livelihood Award. Presented by The Right Livelihood Foundation (December 1, 2017). *2017MVP for Class Action Honoree. Named by Law360. *2019Lawyer of the Year in LitigationEnvironmental. Named by Best Lawyers. *2020Public Interest Environmental Law David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award. *2020Kentucky Bar Association Distinguished Lawyer Award. *2020Big Fish Award. Presented by Riverkeeper Fishermen's Ball. *2020Consumer Safety Award. Presented by the Kentucky Justice Association. *2021Lawyer of the Year in LitigationEnvironmental. Named by Best Lawyers. *2021Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from New College of Florida. *2022Lawyer of the Year in Environmental LawCincinnati. Named by Best Lawyers.


Personal life

In 1996, Bilott married Sarah Barlage. They have three children, Teddy, Charlie and Tony.


References


External links


Exposure at simonandschuster.com

Exposure at kirkusreviews.com

Robert Bilott at osu.edu

Robert Bilott at theintercept.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bilott, Robert Living people 20th-century American lawyers 1965 births American environmental lawyers 21st-century American lawyers Ohio State University Moritz College of Law alumni Lawyers from Albany, New York Lawyers from Cincinnati New College of Florida alumni