![]() ![]() Several times, Bilott had even worked on cases with DuPont lawyers. His specialty was defending chemical companies. Like the other 200 lawyers at Taft, a firm founded in 1885 and tied historically to the family of President William Howard Taft, Bilott worked almost exclusively for large corporate clients. He did not represent plaintiffs or private citizens. They did not understand, however, that Bilott was not the right kind of environmental lawyer. When the Grahams heard in 1998 that Wilbur Tennant was looking for legal help, they remembered Bilott, White’s grandson, who had grown up to become an environmental lawyer. The visit to the Grahams’ farm was one of his happiest childhood memories. Bilott spent the weekend riding horses, milking cows and watching Secretariat win the Triple Crown on TV. In 1973 she brought him to the cattle farm belonging to the Tennants’ neighbors, the Grahams, with whom White was friendly. White had lived in Vienna, a northern suburb of Parkersburg, and as a child, Bilott often visited her in the summers. He might have hung up had Tennant not blurted out the name of Bilott’s grandmother, Alma Holland White. Bilott struggled to make sense of everything he was saying. The farmer was angry and spoke in a heavy Appalachian accent. He had been spurned not only by Parkersburg’s lawyers but also by its politicians, journalists, doctors and veterinarians. Tennant had tried to seek help locally, he said, but DuPont just about owned the entire town. He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg that is more than 35 times the size of the Pentagon, was responsible. The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. Just months before Rob Bilott made partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he received a call on his direct line from a cattle farmer. ![]()
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