The State of Environmental Law
From A Hard Look by Administrative Law Review
December 21, 2025 · 35 min · Season 7 · Episode 4
About this episode
Matt Pawa discusses the intersection of Environmental and Administrative Law, highlighting his significant contributions to climate litigation.
On this episode, we are so grateful to be joined by Matt Pawa to discuss the intersection of Environmental and Administrative Law. There may be no better person in the field to have as our guest today: Matt is a pioneer of environmental litigation, having been involved in many of the nation’s most important environmental cases for over 25years. Matt’s 13-year lawsuit against more than a dozen oil companies for polluting New Hampshire groundwater resulted in over $100 million in pre-trial settlements and a $236 million verdict against Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest verdict in state history. He also launched the first ever climate change tort case in the U.S. back in 2004, bringing an action against many of the largest coal burning power plants, allof which has contributed to Matt being widely recognized as the nation’s foremost expert on climate litigation against fossil fuel companies ever since. Matt is also no stranger to rolling up his sleeves and keeping the Monkey Wrench spirit of the late, great Ed Abbey alive, noted by the dismissal of all criminal charges he obtained for climate protesters Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara in the Lobster Boat Blockade back in 2014—the case ended so…
People in this episode
Guest: Matt Pawa
Topics covered
- Environmental Law
- Administrative Law
- Climate Litigation
- Environmental Litigation
- Fossil Fuels
- Legal Cases
Keywords
- environmental law
- administrative law
- climate litigation
- fossil fuel companies
- legal cases
- pollution
- New Hampshire
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Exxon Mobil Corp.
Places: New Hampshire, U.S.
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