Robert Bilott

A seasoned and internationally-recognized litigator, advocate, and author, Rob represents a diverse range of clients on a wide variety of matters involving federal, state, and local environmental laws. For more than 29 years, he has handled environmental issues of regulatory compliance, permitting, and corporate/real estate transactions, as well as all aspects of litigation arising from such issues, from administrative hearings to multi-party, complex multi-district litigation, mass torts, and class actions.

Rob has gained international prominence in connection with uncovering and disclosing the world-wide impact of environmental contamination by the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances), particularly PFOA and PFOS. To date Rob has secured benefits in excess of $1 billion for a wide array of firm clients adversely impacted by PFAS contamination, including through key leadership positions in the nation’s first class action, personal injury, medical monitoring, and multi-district litigations, and jury trials involving PFAS. Because of this experience and knowledge on PFAS issues, Rob is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities, and other organizations all over the world, including testimony before federal and state Congressional subcommittees, parliaments of the European Union, individual member states, and the United Kingdom, and committees of the United Nations.

In 2017, Rob received the international Right Livelihood Award (also known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize”) for his decades of work on PFAS “forever chemicals,” and was the 2020 recipient of Taft’s “Legacy Award,” which is bestowed upon a Taft attorney who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the firm, resulting in an overall positive impact on the legacy of Taft. Rob’s story is chronicled in his book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont,” and is the inspiration for the feature film, “Dark Waters” and documentary, “The Devil We Know.”

Awards and recognition

2005 Trial Lawyer of the Year. Presented by The Trial Lawyers For Public Justice Foundation.
2006 Super Lawyer Rising Star. Selected by Cincinnati Magazine.
2008 100 Top Trial Lawyers from Ohio. Named by American Trial Lawyers Association.
2008 – Present Leading Lawyer Honoree. Name by Cincy Magazine Environmental Law.
2010 – Present Honoree, Environmental Law, Litigation. Named by Best Lawyers in America.
2011 – Present Top Local Plaintiff Litigation Star Honoree. Presented by Benchmark Plaintiff.
2014 Clarence Darrow Award Honoree. Presented by Mass Tort Bar.
2016 Giraffe Hero Commendation Honoree. Presented by Giraffe Heroes Project.
2016 Joined 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.”
2017 – Present Class Action Honoree. Presented by Kentucky Super Lawyers.
2017 Right Livelihood Award. Presented by The Right Livelihood Foundation (December 1, 2017).
2017 MVP for Class Action Honoree. Named by Law360.
2019 Lawyer of the Year in Litigation – Environmental. Named by Best Lawyers.
2020 Public Interest Environmental Law David Brower Lifetime Achievement Award.
2020 Kentucky Bar Association Distinguished Lawyer Award.
2020 Big Fish Award. Presented by Riverkeeper Fishermen’s Ball.
2020 Consumer Safety Award. Presented by the Kentucky Justice Association.
2021 Lawyer of the Year in Litigation – Environmental. Named by Best Lawyers.

448: Robert Bilott: The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare

Your blood contains PFOA, also known as forever chemicals. They cause cancer of several types, birth defects, and more.

Dupont and other companies produced this stuff after learning it caused harm and dumped it into our environment. As best we can tell, they chose enormous profits over the health of their employees at first, and eventually all Americans and all humans because this stuff takes millions of years to break down and accumulates in our bodies.

We know because Robert Bilott, today’s guest, took on a small farmer’s case. His cows were dying, we now know from water poisoned from Dupont dumping these chemicals. They pulled on the thread and the whole sweater unraveled. Robert’s story became on par with those in the movies Erin Brockovich and A Civil Action.

The highly-reviewed 2019 movie Dark Waters featured Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, and Tim Robbins playing him, his wife, his coworker. The New York Times featured him in its 2016 magazine article The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare. The most personal account is his 2019 book Exposure.

In our conversation I tried to bring out what we who want to conserve our environment could use: what is it like to face something we feel is right, to fix a great problem, to act on our values, even when it seems like we will have to swim upstream?

Because regarding sustainability and nature, we all sense how much easier swimming upstream would be.

Or would it? The more I act, the more I find new role models like him who make the choice I feel right more clear. Listen for yourself. Would you like to feel about your life and family how he feels about his? Could acting even when it’s hard help?

People often call my not flying or taking two years to fill a load of trash extreme. Not by the standards of role models like Robert. The more I act, the more I find people like him and the closer I feel to them.

Maybe I could fantasize about living in a world where I could act without caring who feels the consequences of my actions. Not really, because I find caring for others creates value, not ignoring them. In any case, I don’t live in such a world. Everything I do connects me to others. I’ve come to find that connection improves my life, even if it means not flying or ordering takeout.

I’ve got a long way to go to reach his level of giving and his level of getting. He said he wouldn’t change a thing.

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