Robert Bilott

Robert Bilott is the author of the acclaimed memoir Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer’s Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont, published in 2019 by Atria Books. His story also became the basis for Dark Waters, a 2019 film starring Mark Ruffalo as Bilott.

In 2018, Bilott filed a class action that “seeks relief on behalf of a nationwide class of everyone in the United States” against 3M, DuPont, and Chemours. His litigation against DuPont and 3M is ongoing as of May 2019.

In August 2001, Bilott filed a class action lawsuit against DuPont, which was settled in September 2004, with DuPont agreeing to install filtration plants in the six affected water districts and pay a cash award of $70 million. After a scientific panel paid for by DuPont found that there was a probable link between drinking PFOA and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia, and ulcerative colitis, Bilott began opening personal-injury lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of affected citizens of West Virginia, which by 2015 numbered over 3,500. After winning the first three for $19.7M, in 2017 DuPont agreed to settle the remainder for $671.7 million.

Bilott represented Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, West Virginia whose cattle were dying. The farm was downstream from a landfill where DuPont had been dumping hundreds of tons of Perfluorooctanoic acid. In the summer of 1999, Bilott filed a federal suit against DuPont in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. In response, DuPont advised that DuPont and the United States Environmental Protection Agency would commission a study of the farmer's property, conducted by three veterinarians chosen by DuPont and three chosen by the Environmental Protection Agency. When the report was released, it blamed the Tennants for the dying cattle claiming that poor husbandry was responsible: ‘‘poor nutrition, inadequate veterinary care and lack of fly control.’’

In 1996, Bilott married Sarah Barlage. They have three children.

Bilott was admitted to the Bar in 1990 and began his law practice at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP in Cincinnati, Ohio For eight years he worked almost exclusively for large corporate clients and his specialty was defending chemical companies. He became a partner at the firm in 1998.

Robert Bilott (born August 2, 1965) is an American environmental attorney from Cincinnati, Ohio. Bilott is known for the lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of plaintiffs from West Virginia. Bilott has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of the chemicals Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

Bilott was born on August 2, 1965. Bilott's father served in the United States Air Force, and Bilott spent his childhood on several air force bases. Because the family moved frequently, Bilott attended eight different schools before graduating from Fairborn High School in Fairborn, Ohio. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and urban studies from the New College of Florida. He then earned a Juris Doctor from the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 1990.