Document Type
Article
Abstract
In recent years, lawyers have become increasingly aware of the implications of the climate crisis for legal practice. Amidst this context, United Nations Secretary General Ant6nio Guterres has urged recent graduates to decline work on behalf of "climate wreckers." This Article examines how professional responsibility rules and principles in the United States should be interpreted on a warming planet, particularly in the context of attorneys representing so-called "climate wreckers" in civil matters. I use the term "climate wrecker" to refer to fossil fuel corporations and trade associations that have engaged in public disinformation campaigns to stall climate action and sow doubt regarding climate science.
The Article explains how dominant approaches to attorney ethics are frustrating private governance efforts to persuade attorneys to fulfill their duty to the rule of law by securing a transition away from fossil fuels. Law firms that invoke fossil fuel corporations' right to counsel as a justification for their choice of clients distort foundational legal principles to remain unaccountable. Ultimately, I argue that climate change requires a transformation in the practice of law, namely that lawyers choosing to represent climate wreckers should be held accountable for their decision to do so. The notion that "everyone deserves representation,"and thus lawyers are fulfilling their public citizen duties when representing climate wreckers, distorts professional ethics to justify a decision that ultimately enables further planetary disruption. It is time for lawyers to reckon with the transformation climate change demands and start declining representation that is at odds with a stable climate.
Recommended Citation
Camila Bustos, Representing Climate Wreckers, 33 N.Y.U. Env't L.J. 157 (2025), https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/lawfaculty/1294.