About Wesley Kelman

Wes started his career at a firm in New York representing the Republic of Argentina in sovereign debt litigation, and then began practicing environmental law at the Environmental Protection Agency.  Since 2011, Wes has worked on behalf of cities, states, and non-profits, typically in lawsuits seeking to recover for pollution across multiple sites.  For example:

• Wes represented the State of New Hampshire against more than a dozen oil companies that polluted groundwater across the state. Wes was part of a team that obtained over $100 million in pre-trial settlements and a $236 million verdict against Exxon Mobil Corp., the largest verdict in state history. 
• Wes has represented several states and cities in PCB litigation against Monsanto. Wes helped obtain $140 million in settlements for Virginia, New Hampshire and the City of Los Angeles. 
• Wes worked on several lawsuits seeking to recover for injuries caused by climate change. He has represented (among others) an Alaskan native village and the cities of San Francisco and New York.  Wes also successfully defended certain city officials and attorneys in a proceeding in which Exxon Mobil alleged that climate change litigation infringed Exxon’s free speech rights.    
• Wes has defended environmental groups and climate protestors in other climate-related cases.  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.  Wes also helped obtain a dismissal of all criminal charges against two climate protesters in the Lobster Boat Blockadecase in 2014.
• Wes recently represented five towns in western Massachusetts affected by PCB contamination of the Housatonic River. Wes worked on a landmark $576 million cleanup by General Electric, which also agreed to pay $55 million to the five towns.  Wes helped defend the cleanup in administrative litigation in EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.   Wes has also brought state and federal administrative litigation on behalf of citizens challenging air permits issued to power-generating and industrial facilities. 

Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future matter.

While at Yale Law School, Wes was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for the Honorable Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2000-2001) and the Honorable Warren W. Matthews of the Alaska Supreme Court (2004-2005). He was also a volunteer law clerk for Israeli Supreme Court president Aharon Barak (2001).  Wes has spoken on climate and other environmental litigation at law schools across the country.