An attorney who has represented Exxon Mobil in its fight against lawsuits that seek to hold the oil and gas industry liable for climate change has been selected as a member of the powerful body that oversees Harvard University.
Kannon Shanmugam, who leads the Supreme Court practice at the firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, will join the Harvard Corp. as its newest member on July 1.
Shanmugam has represented Exxon in its push to quash the raft of lawsuits for nearly a decade, arguing before the Colorado Supreme Court in February that a lawsuit filed by the city of Boulder should be rejected.
Shanmugam’s election to the Harvard board comes as the school is under attack by the Trump administration, which has moved to cancel the school’s federal funding and prevent it from enrolling foreign students.
