A Leonardo DiCaprio-funded law firm under Congressional investigation was just selected by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to serve as outside counsel in the state’s forthcoming lawsuit against oil and natural gas providers.
The Daily Caller first reported that Sher Edling, along with law firms DiCello Levitt LLP and Hausfeld LLP, have been selected following a public RFP process initiated by Nessel. According to the AG’s own timeline, the winning firms were supposed to have been announced two months ago in August.
The development comes just days after the release of a Congressional report detailing the dark money funding Sher Edling’s operations, and despite a string of recent failuresthat may spell doom for the climate lawfare movement. Michigan business groups have already widely panned the effort, calling it a “dangerous and inappropriate use of a state office” that would have a “negative and chilling effect on the state’s entire economy.”
Why file this lawsuit now?
The timing of this development doesn’t make sense with Election Day less than a month away. Michigan is a must-win state for Democrats – and as we’ve seen in other key swing states, anti-energy policies like climate litigation, fracking bans, and the Rockefeller-pushed LNG pause are unpopular with voters.
At the same time, Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has attempted to back away from hardline climate policies like her previous support of banning fracking, though has yet to weigh in decisively on climate litigation. Harris is currently polling poorly in Michigan, a reality that would likely worsen should the Democratic attorney general file a climate lawsuit.
Perhaps this is why AG Nessel blew past her own deadline, didn’t hold a press event to announce Sher Edling et al. as counsel, and has yet to file an actual case. But will a case come before Election Day? Or will it be sprung on Michiganders only after they’ve cast their votes in November?
Plaintiffs Lawyers Stand to Make Millions, While Also Getting Paid Up Front
San Francisco-based plaintiffs’ firm Sher Edling, LLP is the law firm serving as outside counsel in dozens of copy-and-paste climate lawsuits around the country. Importantly, the firm is currently being investigated by members of Congress over the firm’s steady stream of dark money funding from Hollywood bigwigs and billionaire climate donors.
A Congressional memo released Monday confirmed the firm has received approximately $13 million in recent years from major left-wing organizations. According to the report:
“…Sher Edling confirmed that from 2017 through 2022, Resources Legacy Fund and New Venture Fund gave the firm $10.8 million in support of its climate nuisance litigation. Sher Edling also revealed two, previously unreported, donations: $2.86 million from New Venture Fund in 2023 and $235,000 from the Tides Foundation in 2022.”
Other billionaire donors that pad the Collective Action Fund’s coffers include Leonardo DiCaprio’s non-profit foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Arabella Advisors’ Network, and the JPB Foundation.
The memo more explicitly lays out how this system allows the billionaire “green mafia” to bypass traditional, transparent, and appropriate avenues to achieve their desired goal: the eradication of fossil fuels by court order.
Despite getting paid up front, Sher Edling also stands to make millions should the plaintiffs succeed. The Daily Caller obtained the fee agreement between the firms and the Michigan AG’s office:
“Specifically, the firms will make 10 percent of the first $150 million recovered and 2.5 percent of anything beyond that threshold if recovery is obtained before discovery…If the firms are able to help the state recover funds from the defendants after the discovery process begins, they will take home 16.67 percent of the first $150 million recovered and 7.5 percent of every dollar beyond that amount…”
Michigan has also hired DiCello Levitt, the firm that has been retained by Chicago, IL and Bucks County, PA in their respective suits, though Bucks County’s suit has had a turbulent roll-out.
Two private law firms evidently aren’t enough, however. The attorney general’s office brought on Hausfeld LLP, another private plaintiffs’ firm that has in the past collaborated with Sher Edling on pitching outside support for a Michigan PFAS lawsuit.
Detroit’s Auto Industries Possibly on the Chopping Block
While details of the suit remain to be seen, EID has pointed out that other industries beyond oil and gas aren’t off the table. Nessel has confirmed that she wouldn’t rule out including auto industries – the backbone of Michigan’s economy – as well as other industries. Similarly, Robert Brulle, a core member of Brown University’s Climate Social Science Network, which produces foreign-funded research to support climate lawsuits, has also suggested the AG should sue “the car companies.”
O.H. Skinner, executive director of the Alliance For Consumers, emphasized this point when speaking to DCNF:
“The same types of officials who are pursuing meatpacking companies because cows contribute to climate change aren’t going to stop at oil producers, they’re going to go after everyone who has a substantial carbon footprint. There is no way that the auto industry can somehow avoid that fate in the eyes of the Left and its progressive allies…
“If the oil producers are liable, then the utilities that built electric generating facilities that can only run on fossil fuels are also liable. The logic then tracks to automakers just the same.” (emphasis added)
This expansion of defendants has already begun. Just this week Multnomah County, Oregon added the first utility to its suit against fossil fuels.
Bottom Line: It’s no surprise Sher Edling and its cast of characters are trying to add Michigan to their (empty) trophy case. What is surprising, though, is that Attorney General Dana Nessel would think it’s a good idea to employ a Hollywood-funded San Francisco law firm under Congressional investigation to bankrupt a critical industry in a swing-state one month ahead of an election.
