University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Professor Matiangai Sirleaf was part of a team of attorneys who received the 2024 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award by Public Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Public Justice presents the award to “the attorney(s) who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting, socially significant case.”
The team of 21 attorneys was recognized for work on the landmark case John Doe I v. Exxon Mobil Corp, which held Exxon Mobil accountable for atrocities committed by its contractors in the Indonesian village of Aceh. The suit was originally filed in U.S. federal court in 2001 by 11 Indonesians alleging that Exxon Mobil contracted with Indonesian soldiers to guard its operations in Aceh and that those soldiers, for years, inflicted abuse, including sexual assault, torture, kidnapping, and murder on villagers and their families. The villagers alleged that Exxon Mobil knew about the violence but failed to take reasonable steps to supervise the soldiers.
After 22 years of litigation that led all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case settled in 2022, achieving the plaintiffs’ goals of documenting the truth of the atrocities, attributing responsibility to Exxon Mobil, and compensating the plaintiffs from Aceh affected by the human rights abuses.
Gaining international press coverage, the case pioneered the use of foreign tort law against multinational corporations as part of a first wave of cases filed under the Alien Tort Statute. It also contributed to the historical record compiled by the Truth and Reconciliation effort in Indonesia.
“I am deeply moved by this recognition because it represents how you build on the work of others that came before and the work continues after you leave,” said Sirleaf, who was part of the legal team as a human rights fellow at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC from 2010 to 2012. “The arc of the moral universe is long. I am incredibly honored to be counted amongst those working to bend it towards justice.”
Sirleaf is the Nathan Patz Professor of Law at Maryland Carey Law. She holds a secondary appointment as a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Sirleaf has published widely and extensively. Her areas of expertise include public international law, international human rights law, global public health law, international criminal law, post-conflict and transitional justice, and criminal law. Her current research projects are focused on race and the histories of international human rights and health inequality and the law.
Public Justice was founded in 1982 and began the Trial Lawyer of the Year recognition program in 2000. This year's award was presented at the 42nd annual Public Justice Gala and Awards Dinner, held July 22 in Nashville, Tennessee.