Sean has litigated cutting-edge corporate accountability cases for nearly 15 years. From PFAS contamination to human rights abuse to climate harms, he has led cases against some of the most powerful corporations involving some of the most serious risks to people and the environment.

Sean has taken to heart the warning from Arthur Miller in his first year of law school that procedure wins out and devotes much of his practice to overcoming threshold defenses, which have proliferated, and which are used by corporations to avoid accountability. He has developed expertise and led dispositive briefing—in state trial courts through appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court—on novel questions of personal jurisdiction, extraterritoriality, removal jurisdiction, bankruptcy law, sovereign immunity, preemption, aiding and abetting liability, and First Amendment defenses; he also has substantial experience with class actions, multi-district litigation and mass tort settlements. 

Sean earned his law degree from the New York University School of Law, and before that he obtained a B.A. in History from the University of Rochester. Sean was previously an associate attorney at Sidley Austin LLP, a senior attorney with Earthrights International (a litigating nonprofit), and an assistant attorney general in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia.

Philosophy

“Let guards be guards.” Sean believes that a winning legal strategy comes down to assembling the right team. “The plaintiffs’ bar is filled with great trial lawyers that typically outmatch their counterparts in the corporate defense bar. This is why the whole game for corporations is to avoid trials, particularly by jury, by developing doctrinal and procedural rules that kill cases early.” Sean does not love trying cases but loves working with the giants of the Plaintiffs’ bar that do. Instead, as a public interest litigator with an iconoclastic and academic streak, Sean leverages a knack for issue identification and hole poking to build strong complaints, as well as keen writing skills to beat back corporations’ efforts to kill cases before the jury hears them.

Select Past Representations

District of Columbia v. 3M Company et al – Lead counsel for the District of Columbia in AFFF/PFAS litigation in both MDL proceedings in South Carolina and bankruptcy proceedings in Delaware.

District of Columbia v. United States of America – Lead counsel for the District of Columbia in CERCLA action against the United States relating to the clean-up of the Anacostia River.

District of Columbia v. Exxon Mobil Corp. – Counsel for the District of Columbia in consumer protection enforcement case against large fossil fuel companies arising out of false and misleading statements relating to fossil fuel products and climate change, as well as greenwashing.

 Board of Cty Comm’rs of Boulder Cty v. Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. – Counsel for three Colorado local governments in climate lawsuits against ExxonMobil and Suncor involving tort and consumer protection claims.

Doe v.Chiquita Brands Int’l – Counsel for hundreds of human rights victims from Colombia in a lawsuit against Chiquita and individual officers and directors for financing right-wing paramilitaries.

Juana Doe et al v. Int’l Finance Corporation – Counsel for two classes and several individual victims of human rights abuse in a case against the private lending arm of the World Bank (IFC) and its subsidiary (AMC).

Bar Admissions:

District of Columbia

New York