Climate Change Litigation and Enforcement

Global corporations and local businesses look to our lawyers’ multidisciplinary approach, deep prosecutorial and enforcement experience, and forward-looking thought leadership to protect their interests in the evolving climate change litigation landscape.

As more corporations are sued in courts around the world, we are equipped to respond with multijurisdictional litigation talent, thoughtful analysis of court trends, and emerging defense theories. And when an investigation is needed or an enforcement or regulatory action is threatened, we have the experience, judgment, and skill that comes from having an industry-leading global enforcement practice. The bench strength and integrated nature of our practice allows us to give our clients the benefit of our experience at the leading edge of investigations and cross-border disputes.

Cleary’s global litigation and enforcement teams bring high-level government backgrounds to their exceptional legal work for clients, representing the world’s leading multinational corporations in high-stakes disputes, enforcement, and regulatory matters: 

• In the United States, our litigation partners include a deep bench of former federal prosecutors, including two recent Acting U.S. Attorneys for the Southern District of New York, and several other former senior officials of the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC, including its most recent Chief Litigation Counsel for Enforcement and a former General Counsel. 
• In Europe, our litigation practice includes top-ranked litigators in the UK, France, and Italy with significant experience with complex disputes in the courts at both the national and European Union level, including former members of the Legal Service to the European Commission. 

We represent clients around the world in disputes involving issues at the forefront of climate change, including under The Clean Air Act and various greenhouse emission regulations. Our high-profile work includes defending multinational conglomerate 3M in litigation arising out of liability associated with environmental disclosures, and representing Bosch in several government agency investigations and multijurisdictional class action litigations in the U.S. in the “Dieselgate” scandal alleging that Volkswagen and other automobile manufacturers used equipment supplied by Bosch to manipulate the results of vehicle diesel emissions tests. The litigation has been closely coordinated with Cleary’s representation of Bosch in investigations by various government agencies in the U.S., including a 50-state settlement reached in 2019.