Margaret Galka joined the Collins Law Firm in 2018 as an associate attorney. Margaret is a dedicated advocate for environmental justice, and a cleaner, safer world. She focuses her practice on environmental mass tort, civil rights and other complex litigation.
Currently, Margaret is litigating a number of cases, including advocating on behalf of more than 750 individuals who have developed cancer and adverse reproductive health impacts from chronic exposure to ethylene oxide emitted by a local device sterilizer. In those cases, Margaret works closely with firm partners Shawn Collins, Norman Berger and Edward Manzke, and is actively involved in all aspects of discovery; successfully opposing motions to motions to dismiss; working closely with CLF’s clients; and all other phases of case development. Margaret was also integral to CLF’s success in common law nuisance and negligence actions brought on behalf of more than 100 families whose properties and health was threatened by volatile carcinogenic chemicals in their groundwater and home air.
Margaret graduated Magna Cum Laude from Vermont Law School, one of the nation’s top environmental law school, where she concentrated on environmental and energy law. While attending law school, Margaret worked as a clinician in the Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic and clerked for a prominent law firm in Burlington, Vermont. Margaret also served as a Co-Chair of the Women's Law Group and as an editor of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law.
Prior to law school, Margaret graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies and political science.
Education
J.D., Vermont Law School, 2018
Graduated Magna cum Laude
B.A., University of Vermont, 2014
Major: Political Science
Major: Environmental Studies
Jurisdictions Admitted to Practice
Illinois, 2018
U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit, 2019
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2020
Past Employment Positions
Vermont Law School Environment and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Student-Clinician
Dunkiel Saunders Elliot Raubvogel & Hand, Law Clerk
