ENGINEER FIRST TO BE TRIED IN BP SPILL

"It’s extremely difficult to work up the corporate ladder to the higher-level officials that the Justice Department and the public wanted to see charged in this case. It’s the nature of corporate crime: It’s very difficult to go up the chain of command. The Justice Department probably decided it was going to charge whoever it could. The problem with that approach is that it lends itself to the claim being made, that the individuals are scapegoats.”

—David M. Uhlmann, Jeffrey F. Liss Professor from Practice and director of the Environmental Law and Policy Program, in an article from The Advocate on the trial of Kurt Mix, a former BP engineer and the first man tried in connection with the explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon.