Some of my recent "how to" posts have offered practical advice and tips concerning various areas of international business law. This post is different–it’s a "how not to" article based on Chevron’s inept and unethical handling of the oil pollution trial currently taking place in Ecuador. While zealous advocacy is critical to any high caliber practice, it must never cross the line into unethical conduct.
The Lawsuit
To put the case into context, Ecuadorean indigenous groups sued Texaco (which Chevron acquired in 2001) in the U.S. District Court in New York in 1993. The suit alleges the company polluted the Amazon rain forest and rivers, causing damage to the environment and their health. Chevron moved to dismiss the case on grounds of forum non conveniens. The U.S. court dismissed the complaint and held that the case should be resolved by an Ecuadorean court. Based on the ruling, the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the small jungle city of Lago Agrio.
After expending an exorbitant amount of resources to have the case dismissed to Ecuador (Chevron submitted numerous Affidavits by top legal experts arguing that Ecuador would be the best venue), Chevron is now arguing that a fair trial in Ecuador is not possible and that the matter should be decided in the U.S.
For an excellent overview of the case, you must read Steven Donziger’s recent commentary in Forbes Magazine, The Chevron Way: In an Ecuador Legal Battle Oil Giant Gives U.S. Companies a Bad name. Steven is a New York lawyer representing the Ecuadorean Plaintiffs in the suit against Ecuador.
Corporate Codes of Conduct
I first read about the case in a New York Times article over a decade ago. I was so disturbed by the deliberate corporate pollution of the pristine Amazon rain forest that I wrote a lengthy law journal article that was subsequently published in the Florida Journal of International Law. The article is titled Oil’s Not Well in Latin America: Curing the Short Comings of the Current International Environmental Law Regime in Dealing With Industrial Oil Pollution Through Codes of Conduct. The article advanced the idea of corporate codes of conduct as a prerequisite to the grant of drilling concessions. Regarded as a cutting-edge proposition, the article was subsequently cited in leading legal textbooks, law review and journal articles.
The corporate codes of conduct I advocated in the journal article would have served Chevron well in conducting its drilling operations in the Amazon basin. Had Chevron implemented such a code, it would have prevented this decade-old public relations maelstrom.
Chevron’s Missteps
Although I believe Chevron committed a serious sin of omission in failing to adopt an appropriate ethical code at the forefront, it pales in comparison to the legal pyrotechnics and machinations it has engaged in during the course of this litigation (including its change of heart concerning venue when the trial did not go its way).
To illustrate this point, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Chevron released recordings showing the presiding Judge speaking about the case and appearing to have established liability against Chevron even though the trial was yet to finish. A second recording allegedly showed a member of the country’s ruling party soliciting bribes in exchange for remediation contracts to be awarded after the verdict. Chevron says the videotapes were a "gift" from two men who, acting independently, used a hidden camera to record the Judge.
Chevron’s questionable videotaping is nothing compared to the impending investigation underway against it, as Steven Donziger reported in his article:
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo–at the request of several Chevron shareholders, including the state’s pension fund–has launched an investigation to determine whether Chevron is misleading the financial markets about the risk it faces in Ecuador.
Conclusion
Let’s see, there’s the decades of oil pollution, abuse of the judicial process, clandestine video taping and now an investigation into misleading the financial markets–all in the name of zealous advocacy? The examples of Chevron’s inept and unethical handling of the Amazon lawsuit are boundless. At every step of the lawsuit, Chevron sought to manipulate, abuse and undermine the judicial process. Chevron’s handling of the case in the past decade is a case study in how not to handle foreign litigation—or any litigation for that matter.
Trend to Watch: Corporations Will Watch this Case Closely As The Ground Rules for Foreign Litigation Are Further Developed