In 2023, California launched a lawsuit against the country's largest oil corporations, accusing them of contributing to global warming.
The state's attorney general, Rob Bonta (D.), pledged to "fight tirelessly on behalf of all Californians.".
However, Bonta swiftly delegated the case to an external law firm, Lieff Cabraser, which has a history of supporting high-profile Democrats, including Bonta himself.
As reported by The Washington Free Beacon, the San Francisco-based firm has been a significant contributor to Democratic campaigns, according to state and federal disclosures. In 2024, Elizabeth Cabraser, a partner at the firm, donated $620,000 to Kamala Harris's presidential campaign and an additional $110,900 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The firm also contributed $50,000 to the Democratic Attorneys General Association in both 2023 and 2024, an organization in which Bonta has been an executive committee member since 2023.
The firm's political donations have been exclusively directed towards Democrats, with no contributions made to Republicans during this period. Since 2020, Lieff Cabraser's attorneys have donated over $5 million to Democrats nationwide and $88,760 to Democratic campaigns in California.
The firm itself has contributed more than $200,000 to Democrats nationwide and $72,700 to Democrats in California. The firm's connections to the Democratic party extend beyond financial contributions, as evidenced by their authorship of a Supreme Court amicus brief on behalf of several Senate Democrats in 2021.
These political affiliations raise questions about Bonta's decision to hire Lieff Cabraser. Critics suggest that the firm's selection may have been influenced more by its ties to the Democratic party than by its legal expertise, particularly given its limited experience with climate litigation. Bonta had previously engaged another San Francisco-based law firm, Sher Edling, which has more experience in this area.
Lieff Cabraser has represented victims of oil spills and toxic water supply exposures in the past, but it has never represented a state or city in a case similar to California's. This groundbreaking lawsuit is part of a recent trend where local jurisdictions are suing oil companies, accusing them of knowingly selling products that contribute to global warming. Sher Edling has been at the forefront of this trend.
Earlier this year, Bonta quietly hired Sher Edling as co-counsel in the case, according to court documents reviewed by the Free Beacon. Bonta's office justified this decision by citing Sher Edling's "unique expertise in representing governments in high stakes climate deception litigation" and "unparalleled knowledge, not available within the civil service or at any other law firm."
Under the contract awarded to Lieff Cabraser in September 2023, the firm was paid up to $1.5 million for its first 10 months of work on the case. The contract was renewed, and Lieff Cabraser remains on the case, suggesting that its earnings have likely exceeded the initial figure. The contract stipulates that the state agreed to pay Lieff Cabraser's individual partners as much as $1,241 per hour and its associates up to $544 per hour to work on the case. In contrast, Sher Edling's attorneys are paid between $175 and $625 per hour.
The California Attorneys Administrative Law Judges and Hearing Officers in State Employment (CASE), the California labor union representing civil service employees, sued Bonta's office in February for outsourcing the litigation to external law firms. The union argues that the state's in-house attorneys are capable of handling the case without the assistance of Lieff Cabraser or Sher Edling.
CASE president Timothy OConnor expressed his disapproval of the use of external counsel, stating, "We will take every and all legal action available to us." He also pointed out the irony of the state spending large sums on outside counsel during a claimed budget crisis.
O.H. Skinner, the executive director of Alliance for Consumers (AFC) and former Arizona solicitor general, criticized the situation, describing it as a "perfect encapsulation of how left-wing officials, especially liberal state attorneys general, have prioritized the shady trial lawyer pipeline." AFC published a report earlier this year showing that Democratic politicians regularly award lucrative public contracts to trial lawyers who then donate millions of dollars to Democratic campaigns. Lieff Cabraser is featured in the report.
Democratic prosecutors in nine states, more than a dozen cities and counties, and Washington, D.C., which together are home to over 25 percent of Americans, have filed similar cases against oil companies. Critics argue that this is a coordinated effort to dismantle the industry and pave the way for a green energy transition.
Oil companies contend that only federal law, not local and state claims, can regulate nationwide emissions. If the courts rule against them, they could be liable to pay hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in climate damages.
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