As climate-change lawsuits against the oil industry mount, Exxon Mobil Corp. is taking a bare-knuckle approach rarely seen in legal disputes: It’s going after the lawyers who are suing it.
The company has targeted at least 30 people and organizations, including the attorneys general of New York and Massachusetts, hitting them with suits, threats of suits or demands for sworn depositions. The company claims the lawyers, public officials, and environmental activists are “conspiring” against it in a coordinated legal and public relations campaign.
Exxon has even given the efforts a vaguely sinister-sounding name: “The La Jolla playbook.” According to the ...