Taft partner Robert A. Bilott was honored with the 2016 Champion For Children award, presented by Greening Our Children, on Oct. 13. The award recognizes Bilott's continued work to defend public health in the ongoing litigation against DuPont. Greening Our Children is an organization that educates communities and advocates for better public policy. Their advocacy and education efforts focus on preventing toxins in the environment from harming children's health and development.

Since 1998, Bilott has worked to uncover and reveal the presence of a toxic chemical, “C8” (PFOA), in the drinking water of tens of thousands of people in the Mid-Ohio Valley and set up a process to clean up that water, as well as investigate and protect the health of those exposed to the chemical. He currently serves as co-lead counsel of the plaintiff’s steering committee in ongoing multi-district litigation involving the claims of thousands of those individuals who contracted one or more of the six serious diseases now linked to these drinking water exposures (including two forms of cancer), and he serves as class counsel for the entire exposed group in connection with the implementation of a comprehensive, new medical monitoring program for early detection of these same diseases.