On July 12, Samuel Issacharoff, Bonnie and Richard Reiss Professor of Constitutional Law, was honored with the Pound Civil Justice Institute’s inaugural Appellate Advocacy Award. The institute, a national legal think tank dedicated to ensuring access to justice for ordinary citizens, recognized him for his contributions to the Deepwater Horizon class litigation.
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010 killed eleven workers and injured more than a dozen others; over the course of three months, the blowout would release in excess of three million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. In 2012, a global settlement was negotiated on behalf of individuals and businesses that had lost money and property, but BP challenged the administration of that agreement.
The Pound Institute recognized Issacharoff’s role in the ensuing appellate process. Issacharoff worked with the claimants’ counsel on appellate briefs in the Fifth Circuit and the US Supreme Court, and served as lead counsel during oral arguments. In its announcement, the institute praised the result of his efforts—“an unbroken series of appellate victories for the claimants, culminating in the Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari [in] BP Exploration & Production, Inc. v. Lake Eugenie Land & Development, Inc.”
Posted July 15, 2015