The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmare. Rob Bilott was a corporate defense attorney for eight years. Then he took on an environmental suit that would upend his entire career — and expose a brazen, decades-long history of chemical pollution. Rob Bilott on land owned by the Tennants near Parkersburg, W.Va.
He had been spurned not only by Parkersburg’s lawyers but also by its politicians, journalists, doctors and veterinarians. Bilott decided right away to take the Tennant case, [and] filed a federal suit against DuPont in the summer of 1999.
He had been spurned not only by Parkersburg’s lawyers but also by its politicians, journalists, doctors and veterinarians. The farmer was angry and spoke in a heavy Appalachian accent. Bilott struggled to make sense of everything he was saying. He might have hung up had Tennant not blurted out the name of Bilott’s grandmother, Alma Holland White.
Bilott represented Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, West Virginia whose cattle were dying. The farm was downstream from a landfill where DuPont had been dumping hundreds of tons of perfluorooctanoic acid. In the summer of 1999, Bilott filed a federal suit against DuPont in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.
$671 million dollarsHis litigation efforts yielded more than $671 million dollars in damages for approximately 3,500 people. DuPont also settled with the EPA, agreeing to pay a mere $16.5 million fine for failure to disclose their findings about C8, a toxin that is now estimated to be present in 98 percent of the world's population.
Bilott serves on the board of directors for Less Cancer, the board of trustees for Green Umbrella, and served on the alumni board for New College of Florida from 2018-2021.
Rob has gained international prominence in connection with uncovering and disclosing the world-wide impact of environmental contamination by the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances), particularly PFOA and PFOS.
Rob BilottDark Waters Tells the True Story of the Lawyer Who Took DuPont to Court and Won. But Rob Bilott's Fight Is Far From Over. Rob Bilott, a corporate lawyer-turned-environmental crusader, doesn't much care if he's made enemies over the years. “I've been dealing with this for almost three decades,” he says.
"Dark Waters" is extremely accurate when compared to the true events, which makes it all the more upsetting. The script is based on the 2016 New York Times article "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare," written by journalist Nathaniel Rich.
In 2018, Bilott filed a lawsuit against corporate entities tied to DuPont — which became defunct in 2017 — as well as 3M and other major chemical companies. The suit seeks to explore the health effects of these alternative PFAS.
Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLPRobert Bilott is a partner at the law firm Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio where he has practiced environmental law and litigation for more than twenty-eight years.
Teflon is made by Chemours, a chemical manufacturer that was spun out of DuPont in 2015....2017 Company Profile: Chemours.RevenuesProfits$6.2 Billion$746 MillionEmployeesTotal return to shareholders7,00060%*Apr 27, 2018
Dark Waters depicts the real-life story of attorney Rob Bilott's fight to find justice for the community of Parkersburg in West Virginia after it's discovered that the DuPont chemical company (manufacturers of 'Teflon', the material used in the majority of non-stick cooking pans) have been illegally dumping toxic waste ...
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, is another man-made chemical. It has been used in the process of making Teflon and similar chemicals (known as fluorotelomers), although it is burned off during the process and is not present in significant amounts in the final products.
Du Pont died in prison while serving a sentence of thirty years for the murder of Dave Schultz. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DuPont phased out U.S. production of C-8 several years ago. Now it's made in China. Although it's still a widely used compound found in non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, and food wrappers here in the U.S.
Bilott spent the weekend riding horses, milking cows and watching Secretariat win the Triple Crown on TV. He was 7 years old.
The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg ...
He was 7 years old. The visit to the Grahams’ farm was one of his happiest childhood memories. When the Grahams heard in 1998 that Wilbur Tennant was looking for legal help, they remembered Bilott, White’s grandson, who had grown up to become an environmental lawyer. They did not understand, however, that Bilott was not the right kind ...
He did not represent plaintiffs or private citizens. Like the other 200 lawyers at Taft, a firm founded in 1885 and tied historically to the family of President William Howard Taft, Bilott worked almost exclusively for large corporate clients. His specialty was defending chemical companies.
Bilott is known for the lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of plaintiffs from West Virginia. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).
Bilott was admitted to the Bar in 1990 and began his law practice at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio For eight years he worked almost exclusively for large corporate clients and his specialty was defending chemical companies. He became a partner at the firm in 1998.
Robert Bilott is the author of the acclaimed memoir Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont, published in 2019 by Atria Books. The audio book version (also available through Atria Books) is narrated by Jeremy Bobb with the first chapter narrated by Mark Ruffalo.
In response, DuPont advised that DuPont and the United States Environmental Protection Agency would commission a study of the farmer's property, conducted by three veterinarians chosen by DuPont and three chosen by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Bilott's story also became the basis for Dark Waters, a 2019 film starring Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, and Anne Hathaway as Bilott's wife, Sarah Barlage.
In 2017, Bilott received the international Right Livelihood Award, also known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize," for his decades of work on PFAS chemical contamination issues, and was featured on a stamp issued in Austria, commemorating the award.