Alumni Achieve a Historic Settlement in Fight Against Forever Chemicals
Several Lewis & Clark Law School alums, serving as outside counsel to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, delivered a major victory for the State of Oregon.
Several Lewis & Clark Law School alums, serving as outside counsel to Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, delivered a major victory for the State of Oregon with a historic agreement between the State and the agricultural chemical and biotechnology company formerly known as Monsanto Company (it was acquired by Bayer in 2018), resolving claims related to the company’s sale and marketing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), known as “forever chemicals,” due to how long it takes them to break down in the environment.
“I remember my granny telling me we couldn’t swim in the Duwamish River in Seattle because it was too contaminated with PCBs,” says Dan Mensher JD ’07, a Keller Rohrback environmental practice group leader who served as one of the outside counsel team. “That I have been able to help Oregon, in this case, means the world to me.” He worked with fellow Keller Rohrback attorneys Yoona Park JD’07 and Kate McCallum LLM ’22, as well as Jen Wagner JD ’02, from Stoll Berne.
The team “acted as the Attorney General’s main litigation team on this case, along with three DOJ attorneys,” says Mensher. After four years of litigation in Multnomah County Circuit Court, the agrochemical giant agreed to pay $698 million to the State, the single largest environmental damage recovery in Oregon state history. It will go a long way to statewide remediation and PCB clean up.
