July 30, 2024
Each year, Public Justice is proud to present its Trial Lawyer of the Year Award to the trial attorney or legal team who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a socially significant case. This year’s winner is the legal team for John Doe I v. Exxon Mobil Corp. The award was given at the 42nd annual Public Justice Gala and Awards Dinner, held on July 22, 2024.
“On behalf of our entire team, thank you. It is an honor to be recognized for our work by Public Justice, especially in light of the other outstanding nominees. This award is really a testament to the bravery of our clients,” said Agnieszka Fryszman, lead counsel for the plaintiffs and chair of Cohen Milstein’s Human Rights practice. “Eleven villagers from a rural community in Indonesia bravely took on one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world and stuck with the fight for more than twenty years. We are so pleased that we were able to secure a measure of justice for them and their families.
Fryszman continued, “This case is also an important victory for the principle of access to justice. It demonstrates that U.S. courts can successfully manage and resolve even complex international human rights cases and that our courts should continue to provide a forum for these meritorious claims.”
After 22 years of litigation, a small but tenacious band of litigators led by Agnieszka Fryszman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC succeeded in holding the massive multinational corporation Exxon Mobil (“Exxon”) accountable for atrocities committed by its contractors while it turned a blind eye for the sake of profits. The case exposed horrific human rights abuses, including sexual assault, torture, kidnapping, and murder committed by Exxon contractors in a rural Indonesian village, and is a shining example for how foreign tort law can be used to hold multinational abusers to account in U.S. courts.
In 2001, 11 villagers filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court alleging that Exxon contracted with Indonesian soldiers to guard its operations in rural Aceh, Indonesia, and that those soldiers abused their power for years, inflicting horrific abuses on the villagers and their families. Plaintiffs saw family members shot to death, a woman who was forced to jump up and down repeatedly while eight months pregnant and was then sexually assaulted, and men were detained and subjected to electric shocks, amputation of limbs, and other torture at facilities within Exxon’s gas exploration area. The villagers alleged that Exxon knew about the violence but failed to take reasonable steps to supervise the soldiers.
The case was part of a first wave of cases filed under the Alien Tort Statute and presented many complex novel legal issues—of jurisdiction, justiciability and political question, comity, extraterritoriality, due process, the collateral order doctrine, foreign affairs preemption, forum non-conveniens, and conflict of laws. Its journey through the U.S. court system took two trips to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and one trip to the U.S. Supreme Court (where review was denied). The claims eventually proceeded in U.S. federal court under Indonesian law.
The plaintiffs’ team developed a strategy based on the transitory tort doctrine, which allows lawsuits to be brought in U.S. courts against defendants that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction, no matter where the injuries took place. The case pioneered the use of foreign tort law against multinational corporations and has provided a roadmap for litigators ever since.
“This case exemplifies everything the Trial Lawyer of the Year Award was created to recognize,” said Public Justice Chief Executive Officer Sharon McGowan. “At a time when powerful corporations spare no expense in the pursuit of shielding themselves from accountability, a team of tenacious and creative trial advocates proved that even deep pockets and deep ties to those who wield power cannot defy the rule of law and run roughshod over the rights of those who have been harmed. The lengths that this team went to in order to secure justice for their clients was extraordinary, and their inspiring victory is a reminder of the power of our profession to change lives and hold even the biggest of corporations responsible for unconscionable actions and atrocities.”
The case and its resolution received world-wide press coverage and has been the subject of dozens of law review articles. The comprehensive account of the atrocities in the trial court’s summary judgment opinion contributed to the historical record that was being compiled by the Truth and Reconciliation effort in Aceh, Indonesia. A video highlighting the case was debuted at the Public Justice Gala, and can be found on the organization’s YouTube channel. Videos highlighting the other two finalist cases for this year’s Award — in Re Capacitors Anti-Trust Litigation and Adkisson v. Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. — are also now available.
We’re proud to recognize this year’s Award winners for their extraordinary legal advocacy and tenacious work on behalf of justice for all.
Team Members for John Doe I v. Exxon Mobil Corp. case:
- Agnieszka M. Fryszman – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Paul L. Hoffman – Schonbrun Seplow Harris Hoffman & Zeldes, LLP
- Leslie Mitchell Kroeger – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Kit A. Pierson – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Terry Collingsworth – International Rights Advocates
- Anthony DiCaprio – DiCaprio Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Robert W. Cobbs – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Llezlie Green – Georgetown Law (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Nicholas J. Jacques – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Kathleen M. Konopka – Global Health Advocacy Incubator (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Brent W. Landau – The Public Interest Law Center (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Maureen McOwen – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Allyson Ford Ouoba – American University Washington College of Law (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Marka Peterson – Strategic Organizing Center (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Poorad Razavi – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Sharon K. Robertson – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
- Thomas Saunders – U.S. Attorneys’ Office, District of Columbia (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Bede Sheppard – Human Rights Watch (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Rita Siemion – U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Matiangai Sirleaf – University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (formerly of Cohen Milstein)
- Nada S. Sulaiman – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Read Public Justice Announces Winner of 2024 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award.