WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The District of Columbia Bar stripped Steven Donziger of his license to practice law, joining New York in determining the onetime environmental activist had fraudulently engineered a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron Corp. in Ecuador.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals, in a terse, two-page order, rejected Donziger’s complaint that it was unfair to disbar him based on the discipline he was given in New York, saying he was attempting to relitigate his case in another venue. The D.C. court also rejected Donziger’s argument the New York proceeding violated his due-process rights. Donzinger had notice of the disciplinary proceedings and participated in them, the court observed.
“Mr. Donziger has had no connection to the practice of law in the District of Columbia for the past 25 years, has no clients or office here, and has no plans to practice law here,” the court said in a July 21 decision.
The D.C. Court of Appeals suspended Donziger’s license in 2018, soon after the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court did the same. A federal judge in 2014 found that Donziger, once celebrated in news coverage and a flattering documentary as a crusader for native Ecuadoreans, had engaged in fraud and racketeering to obtain his multibillion-dollar verdict against Chevron in 2011.
Donziger represented villagers who accused Chevron predecessor Texaco of polluting the jungle with poorly managed oil projects that dumped billions of gallons of waste into the environment. Chevron claimed Donziger bribed court officials and witnesses and used coercion to get the judgment. Donziger was later sentenced to jail for contempt of court after refusing to cooperate with a judge’s orders.