Lieff Cabraser partner Wilson Dunlavey was profiled last week by Berkeley Law in an article entitled “By the Billions: Wilson Dunlavey ’15 Gains Big Environmental Law Settlements From the Big Apple.” One of a series of pieces aimed at highlighting “standout alums who are shining across various practice areas,” the Berkeley Law article examines Wilson’s path through epochal environmental law cases and settlements in the years since his 2015 graduation from Berkeley Law School.
The article notes that Wilson, “specializing in litigation against fossil fuel companies and other polluters, has helped government entities, consumers, small businesses, workers, and homeowners recover a staggering sum — over $16 billion — while prompting changes in various company practices.”
“The most surprising part of my work — from the perspective of what I imagined the job to entail in law school — is how much science I have to understand,” Wilson notes. “Everything from metallurgy to fish migration, consumer spending habits, how emissions systems work, and how toxins are spread through ocean currents and the air. I also have to understand a lot of economics for the complex damages modeling that goes into my cases.”
That impressive track record includes a $1.8 billion settlement with Sempra Energy Corporation arising from the largest methane leak in U.S. history, a $230 million settlement against Plains Pipeline Company from a Santa Barbara oil spill; and a $95 million settlement with a pipeline company and various shipping companies from a spill in Huntington Beach, California. He also helped steer a series of settlements against Volkswagen, Porsche, and Audi sparked by the 2015 “clean diesel” scandal for cheating on diesel-emissions tests.
In addition, Dunlavey has helped alter the law to benefit victims of environmental disasters, including negligence, nuisance, and trespass law. He currently represents the State of California against fossil fuel companies in what may be the most important environmental litigation to date: seeking to hold major oil companies accountable for decades of deception regarding the impact of climate change.
The full profile is available online at Berkeley Law.
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