Women in Law Awards 2021 - 76 - USA ENVIRONMENTAL LAW FIRM PROFILE Baron & Budd, P.C. is among the largest and most accomplished plaintiffs’ law firms in the country. With more than 40 years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation, Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of entities and thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cuttingedge litigation, trying hundreds of cases to verdict and settling tens of thousands of cases in areas of litigation as diverse and significant as dangerous and highly addictive pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, California wildfires and environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal and state whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues. CELESTE A. EVANGELISTI BARON & BUDD, P.C. T: (214) 521-3605 | E: cevangelisti@baronbudd.com | W: www.baronandbudd.com ABOUT CELESTE A. EVANGELISTI Celeste Evangelisti has been a member of Baron & Budd’s award-winning Environmental Litigation Group since its inception in 2002. She has spent more than twenty years litigating complex environmental contamination and toxic tort cases, with a focus on representation of public entities including states, municipalities, public water providers, school boards, and other governmental entities, who seek to recover costs for environmental clean-up, restoration of water supplies, natural resource damages, and any other costs associated with the contamination. For the past year, Ms. Evangelisti has been heavily involved with both the General Liability Discovery Committee and the Science Committee for AFFF MDL No. 2873 pending in federal district court in South Carolina. She is one of a small team of lawyers who have been selected to take the liability depositions for Plaintiffs in this MDL, which involves PFAS contamination of the environment as a result of its use in firefighting foam manufactured by 3M and other global defendants. From 2014 to 2019, Ms. Evangelisti successfully litigated against Monsanto for clean-up costs to address the PCB contamination resulting from Monsanto’s decision to continue to market and promote PCB, despite knowledge it had become a toxic and ubiquitous environmental contaminant. Ms. Evangelisti is a well-known figure in national litigation arising from contamination caused by the gasoline additive Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), having been among the first lawyers to litigate cases against the entire oil industry, beginning in 1999. These cases involved various legal claims applying approximately twenty different states’ laws against more than two dozen defendants including some of the largest corporations in the world – ExxonMobil, Shell Oil Company, etc. She was also involved in litigation involving PCE, TCE and Atrazine against multinational giant Syngenta. Ms. Evangelisti is licensed to practice law in Texas (1995), California (2003) and New York (2004), and is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE • Baron & Budd, P.C. - Shareholder, Environmental Litigation Group, 2006-present - Associate, Water Contamination Practice Group, 2002-2006 • Cooper & Scully, P.C. - Associate, exclusive work on environmental toxic torts, 1999-2002 • Strasburger & Price, LLP - Associate, Product Liability Group, 1995-1999 EDUCATION • Cornell University School of Law (J.D. 1995) • State University of New York at Binghamton (B.A. Mathematics, 1992) PROFESSIONAL AWARDS & ASSOCIATIONS • Top 10 Environmental Trial Lawyers (National Trial Lawyers, 2021) • Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers (National Trial Lawyers, 2017) • Finalist, Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award (2013) • Finalist, Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award (2009) • Texas Super Lawyer (Thompson Reuters, 2003-2005) • Daily Journal Corp.’s California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (CLAY) Award for Environmental Law (2001 - member of legal team/awardee) • American Association for Justice – Environmental Law Section • Public Justice • Dallas Trial Lawyers Association Not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
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