I’m thinking “Erin Brockovich” with a rosary.
From The New York Times:
Missy Sims carefully picked her way through a field of ruined tombs in central Puerto Rico, in a cemetery where walls of water from Hurricane Maria had smashed open some coffins and sent others careering into a nearby stream.
Six years later, the burial place in Lares, where more than 1,700 graves were damaged, is still shattered.
“This is apocalyptic, end of the world, end of times stuff,” said Ms. Sims, an attorney who is representing 16 Puerto Rican municipalities that are seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for the damage caused by a series of storms, including Maria.
Ms. Sims wiped away a tear as she surveyed the broken graves and absorbed the pain of the grieving families. But she also vowed to hold those responsible to account.
Ms. Sims, 54, may be the most surprising legal figure to emerge as the world grapples with the devastating impacts of a warming planet. An Armani-and-Rolex wearing observant Catholic from a small Midwest town who talks to God as she mulls her complex legal cases, Ms. Sims is also a constant TikTok poster whose dog has more followers than some celebrities.
And she is now the singular force behind a creative legal gambit to make oil and gas companies pay for the devastation being wrought by climate change in Puerto Rico. Her strategy is being carefully watched by the fossil fuel industry and environmental groups as well as other lawyers and municipalities.
About her faith:
She got her start as an associate at a small-town firm in central Illinois run by an accomplished municipal lawyer who would start each workday by leading the office in prayer. That suited Ms. Sims.
“He didn’t try to cram it down anybody’s throat,” Ms. Sims said. “He literally was just, ‘Hey, let’s do God’s work today.’”
She remembers one case involving industrial pollution in the region:
Determined to come up with a way to help, Ms. Sims went for an evening jog. It is on these long, meditative runs that she says she talks with God.
“I get along with the Holy Spirit and I’m just like, ‘Help me. Help me help these people,’” she said. “And he said, ‘Fine them.’”
Ms. Sims prayed on it. “I fine people every day for having dog poop in their yards, tall weeds, broken windows,” she remembered thinking. This wasn’t so different, she reckoned.
Read more. She is mighty impressive.
