Donziger asks SCOTUS to take up disbarment case

(Reuters) - Steven Donziger, who was convicted of criminal contempt relating to a decades-long legal battle with Chevron Corp over rainforest pollution in Ecuador, asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review a lower-court ruling that disbarred him in New York.

In a petition filed by Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, Donziger asks the court to review a 2020 New York state court ruling that faulted his "egregious" misconduct in winning a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron Corp in an Ecuadorian court in 2011.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, in 2014, barred the judgment's enforcement, ruling in a lawsuit launched by Chevron that it had been secured through bribery, fraud and extortion.

Friday's petition alleges that the ruling disbarring Donziger denied him his due process by failing to allow him to challenge Kaplan's bribery finding.

Evidence that arose after the trial showed that a sworn statement that underpinned the bribery finding was false, it says.

His disbarment has had a "chilling effect on those who would dare try to hold a corporation accountable in court," the petition says.

On Friday, Nesson said, "I believe the Supreme Court will reject Kaplan's unlawful behavior and allow Steve to continue to represent people damaged by oil companies."

Nesson is best known for charting the field of internet law, including by founding Harvard's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.The Attorney Grievance Committee of the First Judicial Department, which handled the disbarment proceedings, could not be reached for comment. Chevron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Donziger has been serving his sentence in the criminal contempt case since Oct. 27, mostly from home after being released from prison under a pandemic-era early release program.

The contempt case charged him in 2019 of failing to turn over his computer, phones and other electronic devices, among other conduct.

He has appealed the contempt conviction.

The case is Steven R. Donziger v. Attorney Grievance Committee for the Supreme Court of New York Appellate Division; the First Judicial Department, No. N/A.

For Steven R. Donziger: Charles Nesson

Read more:

Lawyer who took on Chevron in Ecuador is disbarred in New York

Lawyer who sued Chevron over Ecuador pollution found guilty of contempt

Court hears Steven Donziger's criminal appeal in Chevron saga

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