Steven Donziger is an environmental justice advocate, human rights lawyer, and writer who helped Amazon communities in Ecuador win the largest trial court judgment against a fossil fuel company in history. The case, Aguinda v. Chevron, resulted in a $9.5 billion verdict against Chevron affirmed unanimously by both Ecuador’s Supreme Court and Canada’s Supreme Court for enforcement purposes. Rather than pay the judgment in the Ecuador court where it had accepted jurisdiction, Chevron vowed to “demonize Donziger” and sued him for billions of dollars using roughly 60 law firms and 2,000 lawyers.

When Donziger famously appealed a legally questionable court order to turn over his computer and confidential case file to Chevron, a judge in 2019 charged him with criminal contempt of court. After the federal prosecutor rejected the charges and refused to prosecute Donziger, the charging judge appointed a private Chevron law firm to act in the shoes of the US government. This law firm prosecuted Donziger directly in the nation’s first corporate criminal prosecution. This resulted in Donziger’s arbitrary detention at home and in prison for close to three years in a case that the UN Working Group On Arbitrary Detention condemned as a violation of international law. Five federal judges - including two US Supreme Court Justices - also have condemned Donziger’s prosecution as unconstitutional.

Donziger is an outspoken advocate and frequently uses his public platform to shine light on corporate corruption and state-sanctioned repression of environmental and human rights defenders. He currently serves on the independent committee of legal experts that are monitoring the legal proceedings in the landmark Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace court case, documenting the flagrant violations of free speech and due process that prevented Greenpeace from receiving a fair trial. He also has supported defendants and human rights victims in a number of areas, including student protest on campus and the historic '“Stop Cop City” movement in Georgia.

Donziger lives in New York City with his wife, Laura Miller, and son, Matthew.