SHOULD A CEO GO TO JAIL BECAUSE

AN EMPLOYEE POLLUTED THE ENVIRONMENT?

 

Jerry Block, Former Chief

Environmental Crimes Section, US Department of Justice 

Noon to 2 p.m. Monday, April 24, 2006

Funger Hall 320, 22^nd and G Streets NW
 

The idea of a vigorous, concerted effort by the federal government to criminally prosecute pollution crimes against the environment is about 20 years old.  The US Department of Justice has a 40 lawyer Environmental Crimes Section in Washington that helps the 94 US Attorney Offices across the country go after polluters.  For most of those 20 years, mandatory sentencing guidelines have determined that polluters would go to jail.  The federal and state prosecutions of Exxon and Capt. Joe Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 have come to symbolize the possibility of Man doing harm to the Environment.  Along the way, criminal prosecutors, using what is known as the Responsible Corporate Officer doctrine, have sought to go after the person in the Boardroom responsible for the pollution, not just the blue-collar worker who gets his hands dirty.          

Jerry Block has been a Partner at the law firm, Venable LLP, since 1991, specializing in environmental criminal and other white-collar criminal defense.  Prior to that, he was at the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice from 1985 to 1991, first as a Trial Attorney, then Assistant Chief, and then in September 1988 as Chief.  He helped to prosecute the Exxon Valdez case and also the prosecution at the Rocky Flats federal nuclear facility in Colorado.  From 1977 to 1981, he was Counsel on the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.  Currently, he has a Presidential appointment as the Chairman of the Trade and Environment Policy Advisory Committee (TEPAC) advising USTR and EPA on trade and environment issues.