A trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience litigating complex mass torts and class actions, Esther Berezofsky has devoted her career to representing communities impacted by environmental contamination and fighting for the rights of consumers, individuals and families impacted by fraud and misconduct across a range of litigation areas. Esther focuses her practice on protecting the rights and seeking accountability for people harmed by toxic chemical exposure—environmental and occupational—as well as patients who suffer life-altering complications caused by dangerous and defective medical drugs and devices.
Esther serves on the Executive Committee as class counsel for residents exposed to lead contaminated water in the Flint Water Crisis litigation. Esther also represents residents in communities nationally, as well as government entities in the United States in PFAS litigation. Esther is also a consultant to the Flemish Minister of Justice and the Environment in Belgium in PFAS matters involving 3M and working on environmental matters in the Netherlands. Esther was lead counsel for a cancer cluster of children in Toms River, N.J, the story of which is memorialized in the Pulitzer prize winning book: Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Esther practiced as a clinical psychologist and consultant for a national network of law firms on post-traumatic stress and community trauma arising out of environmental disasters such as Three Mile Island, Pa., and Times Beach, Mo. In addition to her environmental and toxic exposure work, Esther has held leadership positions in MDL’s and represented clients in litigations involving multiple medical drugs and devices.
Active in the legal community, Esther previously served as Board President of Public Justice, a national public interest law firm, and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. Esther also sits on the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association of Justice and was awarded the Gold Medal for Distinguished Service in 2008 and the Gerald B. O’Conner Award for Trial Advocacy in 2021, by that organization. Esther was recognized by the National Law Journal in 2021 as Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar and in 2023 as a Plaintiffs Lawyers Trailblazer, and a Lawdragon among Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers for the years 2020-2023. Esther has been named as a Super Lawyer 2007-2023.
Esther is a frequent speaker and lecturer on matters related to environmental contamination and toxic exposure, and mass torts. Esther served as an adjunct professor on trial advocacy at Rutgers Law School, her alma mater in 2014. While completing her legal studies at Rutgers Law, Esther served as an article’s editor for the Rutgers Law Journal.