About Matt Pawa

A pioneer of environmental litigation, Matt has been involved in many of the nation’s most important environmental cases for over 25 years. His 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.  Matt was recognized in 2013 as a Massachusetts Lawyer of the Year for his work on the case. His groundbreaking work with a group of eight state attorneys general and the City of New York in taking on the nation’s largest coal-burning electric utilities launched the first climate change tort case in 2004, and Matt has been widely recognized as the nation’s foremost expert on climate litigation against fossil fuel companies ever since.

Matt represents states and cities in litigation against 3M and DuPont for pollution of the environment with PFAS “forever chemicals.”  He also represents states and municipal governments in cases nationwide against Monsanto for PCBs pollution; some of these cases have recently settled (including cases for the State of New Hampshire and the City of Los Angeles) while others are ongoing, including a case for the Burlington, Vermont School District, which is building a new $200 million high school after discovering PCBs contamination from building materials in the old school. Matt has also litigated a case against Sherwin Williams for leaving a toxic legacy of arsenic and lead pollution behind when it closed shop on the largest paint manufacturing facility in the world.

Matt also litigates personal injury cases involving severe injuries and wrongful death, including medical malpractices cases.  He handled a case for a factory worker who suffered permanent neurological damage from exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas that resulted in a substantial settlement.

Over the years Matt has defended environmental groups and climate protestors in cases brought by fossil fuel companies and prosecutors.  In 2015 he defended Greenpeace U.S.A.’s right to protest Shell’s Arctic drilling; the issue became an international embarrassment for Shell, which dropped its plan to drill and lost its lawsuit against Greenpeace.  Matt also obtained a dismissal of all criminal charges against climate protesters Ken Ward and Jay O’Hara in the Lobster Boat Blockade case in 2014; the district attorney issued a dramatic statement on the courthouse steps announcing he was dropping the charges and would join an upcoming climate march. And Matt represented the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Environmental Defense Fund in cases filed by the automobile industry that rejected the industry’s attempt to strike down to state greenhouse gas laws in California, Vermont, and Rhode Island.

Prior to entering private practice, Matt served as an assistant county prosecutor in Burlington, Vermont where he prosecuted the Valentine’s Day rapist. Matt is a frequent speaker at law schools and bar association events and regularly appears in national news stories. See his Awards tab for further details on award wins. Before attending law school, Matt worked as a river guide on raft trips in the western U.S. and studied environmental science at Cornell University’s SUNY College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is the host of the Mother Earth Podcast. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.