Victor Yannacone
Encyclopedia
Victor Yannacone is a controversial, pioneering environmental
attorney, who played leading roles in successful campaigns to ban DDT
in the U.S. and expose the effects of Agent Orange
on Vietnam vets
.
began around 1965, when his wife Carol expressed dismay at dead fish in Yaphank Ponds, her childhood swimming holes in Suffolk County
, Long Island
, NY
. The young attorney developed some novel arguments and legal strategies, as well as spearheading a national publicity campaign, all leading to major court cases and the eventual US
ban on the pesticide's use. The Environmental Defense Fund grew out the small local grassroots group that gathered to help organize the campaign, which included founders Art Cooley and Charles Wurster.
A similar effort in Nassau County
about a decade earlier involved citizens and scientists who suspected a connection between widespread DDT use and rapidly declining bird life. Although they were unable to inspire any governmental action, their efforts (reported in the New York Times
) interested the naturalist author Rachel Carson
. She suggested to New Yorker
editor William Shawn
that he commission an in-depth piece on the subject, and she reluctantly accepted his request that she do it herself. The result was Silent Spring
, a bestseller that produced a fierce response from the chemical industry. It was this well-funded and determined opposition that the nascent EDF
had to overcome.
Yannacone's involvement in the Agent Orange issue was not an unqualified success, largely due to internal personality conflicts, and he left the campaign before its work was completed. His representation of a community group fighting to stop construction of a large tower at the Gettysburg Battlefield
ran into even more controversy, when he accepted an offer to switch sides. The Gettysburg National Tower, as it was called, was built in 1974. Historic preservationists remained opposed to it and it was demolished in a public ceremony on July 3, 2000.
In 1979, prior to his involvement in the Agent Orange class action, Yannacone represented Linda Boreman, known by her screen name as Linda Lovelace, in a lawsuit to recover a portion of the substantial earnings of the film "Deep Throat". The lawsuit, brought in Nassau County, New York, was dismissed without a trial and was never appealed. Yannacone is a prominent figure in Boreman's 1986 autobiography "Out of Bondage".
Yannacone's work in the DDT case, and perhaps in the early phases of the Agent Orange case as well, remain among the more notable campaigns in the brief history of environmental law
- a history that some say began in Yaphank in 1966.
Yannacone reentered environmental law in 2003, representing a group opposed to wind turbines in Kansas. The suit was unsuccessful and came at a time when renewable energy was heavily promoted.
Yannacone's involvement in Patchogue Village politics also led him to a bitter fight with local teachers in the Patchogue-Medford School District
over the issue of teacher tenure. While some, including Yannacone, disagree with granting tenure to public school teachers claiming that tenure keeps incompetent teachers employed, it fails to account for two issues. First, there are other mechanisms in place to dismiss teachers of lesser quality. Second, the public school teachers are subject to a board of education, whose members run elections to be on the board, that sometimes act like politicians with questionable ethics rather than altruistic public servants. (In the mid-1990s, certain candidates for the Patchogue-Medford board of education actually distributed a list of every teacher in the Patchogue-Medford school district along with every teacher's salary, claiming the people who were trying to educate the children in Patchogue and Medford
were overpaid. While the information is publicly available though government agencies, the candidates decided to distribute the information in flyer form at supermarkets and other atypical venues. The flyers, however, failed to state the salaries of the candidates.)
Yannacone's position gave him some notoriety in the mainstream media when he was prominently featured on the ABC-TV
newsmagazine 20/20 in a report about teacher tenure. The reporter, Lynn Sherr, highlighted two teachers of lower ethics. The failing of these two teachers were of the type that could occur in any profession or industry, but Sherr's report failed to show a legitimate connection that the two teachers' personal failings and the issue of teacher tenure, either in causing said failings or in causing the prevention of their dismissal in legal proceedings. These particular teachers were not part of the Patchogue-Medford School District. This fact, however, did not prevent Sherr from interviewing Yannacone, who had no legitimate connection to the particular teachers of questionable character, but he did have a loud and bellicose voice during the interview which tends to play well on television while hiding any flaws from an audience with minimal attention spans. Consequently, Yannacone appeared like a generic radio talk show host brought in by a television show to just talk rather than a competent attorney. The 20/20 report also featured exterior shots of South Ocean Avenue Middle School of the Patchogue-Medford School District (which also had no connection to the aforementioned teachers) and a cursory interview with a number of Patchogue-Medford teachers. The interview with the Patchogue-Medford teachers was conducted en masse, not solo as was the courtesy extended to Yannacone, and was also featured significantly less prominently, both in time on camera as well as verbal off-camera framing by Sherr, than the Yannacone interview.
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
attorney, who played leading roles in successful campaigns to ban DDT
DDT
DDT is one of the most well-known synthetic insecticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
in the U.S. and expose the effects of Agent Orange
Agent Orange
Agent Orange is the code name for one of the herbicides and defoliants used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth...
on Vietnam vets
Vietnam veteran
Vietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
.
DDT
Yannacone's involvement with DDTDDT
DDT is one of the most well-known synthetic insecticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....
began around 1965, when his wife Carol expressed dismay at dead fish in Yaphank Ponds, her childhood swimming holes in Suffolk County
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York on the eastern portion of Long Island. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,493,350. It was named for the county of Suffolk in England, from which its earliest settlers came...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, NY
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. The young attorney developed some novel arguments and legal strategies, as well as spearheading a national publicity campaign, all leading to major court cases and the eventual US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ban on the pesticide's use. The Environmental Defense Fund grew out the small local grassroots group that gathered to help organize the campaign, which included founders Art Cooley and Charles Wurster.
A similar effort in Nassau County
Nassau County, New York
Nassau County is a suburban county on Long Island, east of New York City in the U.S. state of New York, within the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,339,532...
about a decade earlier involved citizens and scientists who suspected a connection between widespread DDT use and rapidly declining bird life. Although they were unable to inspire any governmental action, their efforts (reported in the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
) interested the naturalist author Rachel Carson
Rachel Carson
Rachel Louise Carson was an American marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement....
. She suggested to New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
editor William Shawn
William Shawn
William Shawn was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from 1952 until 1987.-Education and Early Life:...
that he commission an in-depth piece on the subject, and she reluctantly accepted his request that she do it herself. The result was Silent Spring
Silent Spring
Silent Spring is a book written by Rachel Carson and published by Houghton Mifflin on 27 September 1962. The book is widely credited with helping launch the environmental movement....
, a bestseller that produced a fierce response from the chemical industry. It was this well-funded and determined opposition that the nascent EDF
Environmental Defense
Environmental Defense Fund or EDF is a United States–based nonprofit environmental advocacy group. The group is known for its work on issues including global warming, ecosystem restoration, oceans, and human health...
had to overcome.
Yannacone's involvement in the Agent Orange issue was not an unqualified success, largely due to internal personality conflicts, and he left the campaign before its work was completed. His representation of a community group fighting to stop construction of a large tower at the Gettysburg Battlefield
Gettysburg Battlefield
The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the 4 acre site of the first shot & at on the west of the borough, to East...
ran into even more controversy, when he accepted an offer to switch sides. The Gettysburg National Tower, as it was called, was built in 1974. Historic preservationists remained opposed to it and it was demolished in a public ceremony on July 3, 2000.
In 1979, prior to his involvement in the Agent Orange class action, Yannacone represented Linda Boreman, known by her screen name as Linda Lovelace, in a lawsuit to recover a portion of the substantial earnings of the film "Deep Throat". The lawsuit, brought in Nassau County, New York, was dismissed without a trial and was never appealed. Yannacone is a prominent figure in Boreman's 1986 autobiography "Out of Bondage".
Yannacone's work in the DDT case, and perhaps in the early phases of the Agent Orange case as well, remain among the more notable campaigns in the brief history of environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
- a history that some say began in Yaphank in 1966.
Yannacone reentered environmental law in 2003, representing a group opposed to wind turbines in Kansas. The suit was unsuccessful and came at a time when renewable energy was heavily promoted.
Patchogue Village controversy
Around 1999, Yannacone became immersed in Patchogue Village politics, and in efforts to revive the fortunes of this fading commercial town on Long Island's Great South Bay. His party won, and the picturesque but hazardous remains of a large historic lace mill were soon demolished. This was said to be a giant step forward in the community's revitalization.Yannacone's involvement in Patchogue Village politics also led him to a bitter fight with local teachers in the Patchogue-Medford School District
Patchogue-Medford School District
Patchogue Medford School District is a public school district that covers approximately in the southern part of the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States....
over the issue of teacher tenure. While some, including Yannacone, disagree with granting tenure to public school teachers claiming that tenure keeps incompetent teachers employed, it fails to account for two issues. First, there are other mechanisms in place to dismiss teachers of lesser quality. Second, the public school teachers are subject to a board of education, whose members run elections to be on the board, that sometimes act like politicians with questionable ethics rather than altruistic public servants. (In the mid-1990s, certain candidates for the Patchogue-Medford board of education actually distributed a list of every teacher in the Patchogue-Medford school district along with every teacher's salary, claiming the people who were trying to educate the children in Patchogue and Medford
Medford, New York
Medford is a hamlet in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 21,985 at the 2000 census.Medford is a community in the southwest part of the Town of Brookhaven...
were overpaid. While the information is publicly available though government agencies, the candidates decided to distribute the information in flyer form at supermarkets and other atypical venues. The flyers, however, failed to state the salaries of the candidates.)
Yannacone's position gave him some notoriety in the mainstream media when he was prominently featured on the ABC-TV
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
newsmagazine 20/20 in a report about teacher tenure. The reporter, Lynn Sherr, highlighted two teachers of lower ethics. The failing of these two teachers were of the type that could occur in any profession or industry, but Sherr's report failed to show a legitimate connection that the two teachers' personal failings and the issue of teacher tenure, either in causing said failings or in causing the prevention of their dismissal in legal proceedings. These particular teachers were not part of the Patchogue-Medford School District. This fact, however, did not prevent Sherr from interviewing Yannacone, who had no legitimate connection to the particular teachers of questionable character, but he did have a loud and bellicose voice during the interview which tends to play well on television while hiding any flaws from an audience with minimal attention spans. Consequently, Yannacone appeared like a generic radio talk show host brought in by a television show to just talk rather than a competent attorney. The 20/20 report also featured exterior shots of South Ocean Avenue Middle School of the Patchogue-Medford School District (which also had no connection to the aforementioned teachers) and a cursory interview with a number of Patchogue-Medford teachers. The interview with the Patchogue-Medford teachers was conducted en masse, not solo as was the courtesy extended to Yannacone, and was also featured significantly less prominently, both in time on camera as well as verbal off-camera framing by Sherr, than the Yannacone interview.