Shareholder, Attorney at Law
Celeste Evangelisti has devoted almost two decades of her career to representing individuals, municipalities and public water suppliers who seek to recover costs to clean up contamination from the companies responsible – those who put dangerous products into the stream of commerce without ensuring they will not cause extensive environmental contamination. A shareholder with Baron & Budd’s Environmental Law Group, Ms. Evangelisti currently represents plaintiffs in several states across the country who face a variety of contamination issues.
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 oil refiners who blended MTBE into gasoline.
Ms. Evangelisti started her career at a large defense firm, representing some of the biggest corporations in the world in product liability cases. In 1999, Ms. Evangelisti used the knowledge she gained representing defendants in those cases and began working with Scott Summy, who represented corporate victims of wrongdoing. Scott was then expanding his groundwater contamination practice to California and other states. Mr. Summy brought his team to Baron & Budd in 2002, ultimately forming and expanding what is now the Environmental Law Group. Through the years, Ms. Evangelisti has assisted in the representation of over 150 water providers in MTBE cases.
Celeste Evangelisti’s knowledge and skill have been put to work in many other water contamination cases as well, including those involving perchloroethylene (PCE), Trichloropropane (TCP) and Atrazine. She recently began working on the firm’s PCBs-in-schools cases, which inspire her every day. “I can’t imagine a more important cause than to protect the nation’s children,” she says.
Hard-driving and tenacious, Ms. Evangelisti legal prowess has earned her many professional honors and awards. Ms. Evangelisti is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, its top rating. She was a member of the legal team representing Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) which was named “Attorneys of the Year” for Environmental Law in 2001 by California Lawyer (Daily Journal Corp.) for the resolution of a precedent-setting case requiring major oil companies to clean up more than a thousand sites contaminated by the gasoline additive MTBE. Ms. Evangelisti has been nominated twice for Public Justice’s prestigious “Trial Lawyer of the Year” award (2009, 2013) for her work on MTBE and Atrazine respectively, and she was named a “Texas Super Lawyer” for three straight years (Thompson Reuters, 2003-2005).
Ms. Evangelisti has been a frequent speaker and presenter on legal topics concerning the prosecution of water contamination cases involving the gasoline additive MTBE and other contaminants of concern. “The lengths to which some polluters will go to increase their profits at the expense of the well-being of entire communities never ceases to amaze me,” she says. “It is ultimately very satisfying to bring these companies to justice and protect the environmental integrity of our water supplies.”
Presentations
How to Work Up an MTBE Case – Documents and Depositions,” MTBE Multi-District Litigation PSC Group (March 15, 2005).
“Pursuit of Damages by Municipal Water Providers and Private Well Owners,” Mealey’s MTBE & USTs Litigation Conference (December 6, 2004).
“MTBE: The Plaintiffs’ Perspective,” Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (July 29, 2004).
“Perchlorate in Ground Water: Legal Implications,” American Ground Water Trust (February 9, 2004).
“Perchlorate: The Blast that Lasts,” 11th Annual Region 9 Tribal EPA Conference (October 23, 2003).
“Discovery Issues: What are your looking for? What are you going to find?” Mealey’s MTBE and USTs Litigation Conference (November 4-5, 2002).
“MTBE: What the Public’s Representatives Should Know,” Twelfth Annual Texas Environmental Superconference (August 2, 2000).
“Update on Class Actions,” Mealey’s MTBE Conference (May 11-12, 2000).
Education
Cornell University School of Law (J.D. 1995)
State University of New York at Binghamton (B.A. Mathematics, 1992)
Bar & Court Admissions
Texas
California
New York
United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of Texas
United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Central Districts of California
United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
Awards
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)
Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers (National Trial Lawyers, 2017-present)
Top 10 Environmental Trial Lawyers in Texas (National Trial Lawyers, 2020-present)
Top 25 Product Liability Trial Lawyers (National Trial Lawyers, 2021-present)
Professional Associations
New York State Bar
State Bar of California
State Bar of Texas
American Association for Justice – Environmental Law Section
Public Justice
Dallas Trial Lawyers Association
National Trial Lawyers
