Exxon hires High-profile Attorney to Handle NY Climate Change Probe

In an effort to fight New York climate change probe, oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil Corp has hired a high-profile lawyer. People familiar with the matter said the star attorney’s involvement is an aggressive response by the company to probe into its climate change disclosures.

Exxon Mobil’s new star lawyer is Theodore V. Wells, Jr., a litigation partner at the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. The attorney will help the company in fighting the climate change probe. Eric Schneiderman, New York Attorney General, started investing about a year ago whether the Irving headquartered Exxon intentionally hid risks of climate change from its investors.

Last month, Exxon was subpoenaed by the attorney general’s office. The company was asked to provide documents like financial records and emails. As per the sources, Exxon has not responded to the requests.

Exxon has not been charged in the case, and it is still unknown whether the investigation will take place or not, but the company’s decision to hire Wells showed that the company is taking the matter seriously. The sources also revealed that Exxon is also taking help from Paul Weiss partner Michele Hirshman, former deputy New York attorney general.

Earlier, a number of environment group asked the United States Justice Department to lead a probe after some news reports suggested that Exxon executives didn’t take global warming warnings seriously.