Crude Justice — the story of a lifetime fighting Big Oil, and winning

The story of my new book -- Crude Justice: How I Fought Big Oil and Won, and What You Should Know About the New Environmental Attack on America -- begins with a phone call. Sometimes one call can change your life – maybe even change the world a little bit. In 1989, I was a young lawyer just a few years out of Loyola Law School. I’d already left one button-down law firm to work as a trial lawyer handling tort cases, but I still hadn’t quite found my niche – in the legal profession, or in life. Then the phone rang, and on the other end of the line was the thick-as-grits Mississippi accent of a machine shop owner named Winston Street. He said that radioactive gunk from cleaning out pipes for some of the world’s richest oil companies – like Shell and Chevron – had not only contaminated his property but made workers, even family members, ill. And he couldn’t find the right lawyer to take on two powerful corporations with unlimited resources. A number of my friends begged me not to take Winston ...