Biden Considering Lawyer Who Defended Big Oil In Climate Suits For Solicitor General

Biden Considering Lawyer Who Defended Big Oil In Climate Suits For Solicitor General

On the campaign trail in 2019, Joe Biden said that fossil fuel executives should be held liable for climate change and those who refuse to take responsibility should be jailed. “We should be able to sue” oil and gas companies “just like we did the drug companies, just like we did with the tobacco companies,” he said in a February debate. And on his campaign website, Biden pledged to “strategically support ongoing plaintiff-driven climate litigation against polluters.” 

Now just weeks away from inauguration, the president-elect is considering a corporate lawyer who has defended Royal Dutch Shell against climate liability lawsuits to serve as solicitor general, the administration's top legal advocate who argues cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, according to two sources with knowledge of the process. 

David Frederick, a partner at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, is considered a serious enough candidate for solicitor general that the group Demand Progress singled him out as someone it would oppose in a public letter last month.

Frederick served as a Clinton-era assistant to the solicitor general from 1996 to 2001 and appeared on the Obama administration's short list for the top job in 2008. 

The Biden transition team, which is expected to announce