July 23, 2024
We are delighted to share that Agnieszka Fryszman, chair of our Human Rights practice, and her small but dedicated team won Public Justice’s 2024 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for their achievement in John Doe I, et al. v. ExxonMobil Corporation (D.D.C.). The award was presented on July 22nd at the 42nd Annual Public Justice Gala at the Four Seasons Hotel in Nashville.
After 22 years of litigation, Agnieszka and her team succeeded in holding ExxonMobil accountable for unspeakable human rights atrocities, allegedly committed by its security contractors in Aceh, Indonesia. While the settlement terms are confidential, the litigation helped deliver justice to the 11 Jane and John Does who brought the case in 2001.
As one plaintiff said, “the settlement delivers the justice we have spent two decades fighting for and has been life-changing for me and my family. I am glad we did not give up the fight and Cohen Milstein ensured that our voices were heard.”
The litigation itself is a tremendous achievement and is sure to be studied in law schools for years to come. It was part of a first wave of cases filed under the Alien Tort Statute and went up to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals twice, where Agnieszka’s team won both times. The claims eventually proceeded in U.S. federal court under Indonesian law, and in May 2023, the case settled days before jury trial was set to begin. This case quite literally pioneered the use of foreign tort law against multinational corporations and has provided a roadmap for litigators ever since.
“This case exemplifies our commitment to our clients. Our firm may not have the headcount of the country’s largest defense firms, but we put big law resources and a unified partnership behind every case we file. We cannot and will not wave a white flag because we are outspent. That would mark the end of our success,” said Benjamin Brown, managing partner of Cohen Milstein.
Over the past 22 years, Agnieszka’s team has included renowned human rights and appellate attorneys, including Paul L. Hoffman from Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes, LLP, Terry Collingsworth from International Rights Advocates, and Anthony DiCaprio from DiCaprio Alternative Dispute Resolution, as well as dozens from Cohen Milstein, including more recently Leslie Kroeger, Kit Pierson, Robb Cobbs, Nick Jacques, Poorad Razavi, Sharon Robertson, Nada Sulaiman, and several Human Rights fellows.
Read more about the Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award and this year’s three finalists.