Nancy Christensen joined Weitz & Luxenberg’s Environmental, Toxic Torts, and Consumer Protection litigation unit as an associate attorney in 2016. With more than a decade of consumer advocacy and specialized environmental litigation experience, she is indispensable in our efforts to hold irresponsible corporations accountable.
Most recently, Ms. Christensen has teamed up with our attorneys in targeting firefighting foam manufacturers charged with contaminating water supplies in the communities of Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania. The firefighting foam contains the toxic chemicals perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which have been used on military bases for decades. The mishandling of these poisonous agents has jeopardized the lives of thousands of businesses and residents and devalued homes.
Ms. Christensen also has assisted our attorneys in seeking justice for victims of the Flint Water Crisis. In addition, she is representing a city in Oklahoma that is trying to protect its public water supply from contamination emanating from a former manufacturing facility.
Prior to joining our firm, Ms. Christensen served three years as assistant attorney general in the New York State Office of the Attorney General in the Environmental Protection Bureau, Toxics and Cost Recovery section. One of her primary responsibilities was managing cases involving the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), sometimes called Superfund. CERCLA was enacted in 1980 to correct egregious acts of hazardous waste mismanagement committed by large corporations.
In addition to recovering millions of dollars in state cleanup funds, she also handled enforcement matters, including an investigation into children’s products being offered for sale in New York that contained dangerous levels of lead. As a result of the investigation’s findings, one company issued a nationwide recall for three of its products.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Christensen served in the environmental practice group at a large international law firm, where she represented clients in a number of matters involving environmental laws and complex regulatory issues. This included cases where clients sought to recover cleanup costs from the United States for its share of contribution to contamination at Department of Defense contractor sites.
One such case, brought in the Central District of California, was for cleanup costs associated with hazardous chemical contamination linked to a manufacturing facility in California that made missiles for the Army and Navy decades earlier.
Ms. Christensen is licensed to practice law in New York and New Jersey. She is also approved to practice in the U.S. District of New Jersey and the Southern, Eastern and Northern Districts of New York.
Ms. Christensen graduated with a juris doctorate degree from the Columbia School of Law in New York City in 2003. Her honors include being named a Charles Evans Hughes fellow, Susan Price Carr Scholar, and Human Rights Fellow.
She earned undergraduate degrees in the arts and journalism in 1999 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ms. Christensen’s majors included news-editorial, English, and women’s studies.
One of Ms. Christensen’s passions is helping victims of domestic violence navigate the legal system. Pro bono, she has represented clients of Sanctuary for Families’ Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services, helping them obtain orders of protection and assisting them in disputes involving child support and custody. During law school, she helped the organization run its Courtroom Advocates Project (CAP) at Columbia, which enabled law school students to advocate for domestic violence victims entering family court to obtain orders of protection. In 2009, Sanctuary for Families honored her with its Above & Beyond Pro Bono achievement award.
