(Legal Newsline) — When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments starting Monday in a high-profile case testing whether state and local governments can sue oil companies over climate change, the lawyer at the podium won’t be from the county or city governments that brought the case but from a private firm working on a contingency-fee basis.

The case — Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County — is just one in a wave of lawsuits working their way through state and federal courts around the country being steered by private lawyers who have a huge financial stake in the outcome. Many of those attorneys stand to make hundreds of millions —even billions of dollars — in fees if the legal theories they promoted to their government clients are successful.

This report was produced by Legal Newsline and distributed by The Center Square as part of a content-sharing agreement. Reach editor John O’Brien at john.obrien@therecordinc.com.

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