Impact at CLIPI
After graduating from Cal Berkeley Law and practicing at O’Melveny for two years, Rushforth co-founded CLIPI. During his time at CLIPI, Rushforth was involved in significant environmental and civil rights litigation, including halting construction of the Century Freeway through South-Central Los Angeles.
Along with Phillips and Hall, Rushforth led the Northrop litigation, which exposed Northrop’s bribery throughout the world and gave rise to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act––prohibiting American corporations from bribing foreign officials.
With Hall, he successfully led the litigation to prevent Occidental Petroleum from pursuing its proposed wildcat drilling adjacent to Will John Rogers State Beach. Additionally, Rushforth initiated CLIPI’s challenge to the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant and brought litigation that defeated a proposed coal-burning power plant in Utah’s Kaiparowits plateau, now a national monument.
Following CLIPI, Rushforth served as Deputy General Counsel for the Department of Defense during the Carter administration. He then transitioned into private practice and built a distinguished legal career focused on antitrust and unfair competition, intellectual property and trade regulation. He recently retired from McKool Smith in Washington, D.C. Over the years, he has been involved in extensive high-profile pro bono work, including representing Iraq War Guantanamo detainees.
