Pawa Law Group Defeats Exxon Slapp Suit; Hacking Operation Comes To Light

When PLG filed the San Franscisco and Oakland climate cases, Exxon and its counsel Paul Weiss struck back with a SLAPP suit against the cities, PLG and Pawa in Texas state court contending that the cities’ climate case in California was an abuse of the legal system and a violation of Exxon’s free speech rights.  Exxon and Paul Weiss’ legal tactic shamelessly targeted Pawa’s free speech and association rights and repeatedly used in court a series of documents from a hacking operation that news outlets are saying has now been traced back to a lobbying firm.  Exxon lost the case on jurisdictional grounds in its hand-picked jurisdiction.  City of San Francisco v. Exxon Mobil Corp., No. 02-18-00106-CV, 2020 WL 3969558 (Tex. App. June 18, 2020) (dismissing Exxon petition for lack of personal jurisdiction).  Although the hacking operation targeted PLG as well as Matt Pawa and his family members, PLG’s computer system was never hacked due to a firewall and related security measures; nor were any of the hacking attempts against Pawa and his family members successful.