Thakur vs. Trump Team Wins 2026 Trailblazer Award From CLA Environmental Law Section

Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that the lawyers representing University of California researchers in the class action case Thakur v. Trump have received the California Lawyers Association Environmental Law Section’s 2026 Trailblazer Award for their collective efforts to preserve planet-critical research and uphold the rule of law. Sharing the award with Farella are lawyers with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein and legal scholars Claudia Polsky and Erwin Chemerinsky. 

The award will be presented at the annual Environmental Law Conference in Yosemite from October 15 to 18, 2026. Launched in 2024, the Trailblazer Award recognizes environmental leaders whose innovative and creative legal work has improved the lives of Californians and the California environment. Read the CLA announcement here.

This first-of-its-kind class action litigation was filed in June 2025, on behalf of UC faculty and other researchers whose grants the Trump Administration abruptly terminated across several government agencies by Executive Order. Since then, the team has secured preliminary injunctions ordering the government to cease grant terminations and to reinstate previously terminated research grants by the EPA and several other government agencies. The team’s successes have restored more than 700 research grants, allowing almost $1 billion in grant funding to keep flowing and important research to continue. The preliminary injunction is under appeal in the Ninth Circuit.

Recently, the Thakur team reached a settlement agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to permanently restore $19 million in UC research grants at issue in their claims against the agency. Examples of the restored grants include projects on the effects of particulate matter from wildfire smoke on environmental justice communities, research on air emissions from municipal solid waste landfills, and water management initiatives. A motion for preliminary approval of the class settlement with the EPA was filed on September 23, and a hearing on this motion is scheduled for December 10 before U.S. District Judge Rita F. Lin.

The Thakur plaintiff class legal team includes Tony Schoenberg, Linda Gilleran, Kyle McLorg, Dylan Silva, and Katherine Balkoski with Farella Braun + Martel LLP; Elizabeth Cabraser, Richard Heimann, Kevin Budner, Annie Wanless, and Clare Perez with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP; and Erwin Chemerinsky and Claudia Polsky.

Farella Braun + Martel is a leading Northern California law firm representing corporate and private clients in sophisticated business and real estate transactions and complex commercial, civil, and criminal litigation. Clients seek our imaginative legal solutions and the dynamism and intellectual creativity of our lawyers. We are headquartered in San Francisco and maintain an office in the Napa Valley focused on the wine industry.

Contact:
Cheryl Loof
Farella Braun + Martel LLP
415.954.4433 / [email protected]