Christopher Kilian is CLF’s Vice President for Strategic Litigation, directing a program that litigates complex cases addressing major issues including: fossil fuel industry accountability for climate change, nutrient water pollution, corporate greenwashing, and emerging contaminants. Recently he has developed and led innovative litigation requiring climate resilience measures at fossil fuel industry facilities. In 2010 Chris was recognized as a national “Clean Water Thought Leader” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Chris is a graduate of the University of Rochester and Vermont Law School and has over 30 years of experience litigating dozens of cases with high impact outcomes. He started at CLF as a staff attorney in 1999 and has served in several roles including Vermont Vice President and Director of the Clean Water and Healthy Forests Program. Prior to CLF, Chris worked at the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Chris is admitted to practice in numerous Federal courts and in the State of Vermont.
Chris’s work has been recognized with several awards and includes the following: removal of the Newport 11 hydropower dam on Vermont’s Clyde River and salmon restoration; protection of nearly 1 million acres of conserved lands and Federal Wilderness; a new Federal cleanup program for Lake Champlain; comprehensive overhaul of storm water management across the Massachusetts state highway system and the City of Boston; closure of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant; stopping construction of the Chittenden County Circumferential Highway in Vermont; sustainably limiting snow-making water withdrawals at major resorts; improving pollution clean-up at closed military bases; and assisting in the legal defense of greenhouse gas controls on cars and light trucks under the Federal Clean Air Act.