Politics and Right Livelihood Center are pleased to welcome Rob Bilott back to UC Santa Cruz.
Rob Bilott, esteemed 2017 Right Livelihood Laureate, offered insights from his life experience on “Using Rights and Litigation as Tools for Environmental and Health Justice.” Bilott’s virtual visit occurred on Zoom, and was hosted by Professor Elizabeth Beaumont’s Civil Liberties and Civil Rights course. This special event was sponsored by the Politics Department’s Civic Discourse and Democratic Engagement Initiative and by the Right Livelihood Center at UC Santa Cruz.
ABOUT ROBERT BILOTT
Rob Bilott is a partner in the Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky offices of the law firm, Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he has practiced in the Environmental and Litigation Practice Groups for over 33 years. During that time, Rob has handled and led some of the most novel and complex cases in the country involving damage from exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), including the first individual, class action, mass tort, and multi-district litigation proceedings involving PFAS, recovering over $1 billion for clients impacted by the chemicals.
In 2017, Rob received the Right Livelihood Award, known as the “Alternative Nobel Prize,” for his decades of work on behalf of those injured by PFAS chemical contamination. (See https://rightlivelihood.org/the-change-makers/find-a-laureate/robert-bilott/) Rob is the author of the book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont,” and his story is the inspiration for the 2019 motion picture, “Dark Waters,” starring Mark Ruffalo as Rob. Rob’s story and work is also featured in the documentaries, “The Devil We Know ” and “Burned: Protecting the Protectors.” Rob is a 1987 graduate of New College in Sarasota, Florida, and a 1990 graduate of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Rob also serves on the Boards of Less Cancer and Green Umbrella and is frequently invited to provide keynote lectures and talks at law schools, universities, colleges, communities, and other organizations all over the world. Rob is a fellow in the Right Livelihood College, a Lecturer at the Yale School of Public Health / Department of Environmental Health Sciences, and an Honorary Professor at the National University of Cordoba in Argentina. Rob also has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Ohio State University, New College of Florida, and Thomas More University.
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