A trial lawyer with more than 35 years of experience litigating complex mass torts, 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. She serves on the Executive Committee as class counsel for residents exposed to lead contaminated water in the Flint Water Crisis litigation. She also represents residents in other communities, as well as governmental 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.
She 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 numerous leadership positions and represented clients in MDLs and other litigations involving medical drugs and devices including Medtronic Pain and Insulin Pumps, DePuy ASR, Pinnacle and Stryker Hip Implant cases, Benicar, Risperdal, Xarelto, Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Ortho Evra, Rezulin, PPA, Invokana, Taxotere, among others.
She also represents plaintiffs in consumer class actions alleging fraudulent student loan schemes and consumers in pay day lending cases. She has litigated rent-to-own and option ARM fraudulent mortgage claims, among other consumer protection cases.
Prior to joining Motley Rice, Esther founded Berezofsky Law Group in New Jersey where she pursued complex consumer mass torts. Prior to that, she was a name partner in a plaintiffs’ law firm in Philadelphia for more than two decades. She has been active in the legal community has held leadership roles at several law firms in Philadelphia and New Jersey.
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. She 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.
She is a frequent speaker and lecturer on matters related to environmental contamination and toxic exposure, product liability and mass torts. She 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 articles editor for the Rutgers Law Journal.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
•Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Technological Disaster, 18 Rutgers Law Journal 623 (1987), reprinted in BNA Toxic Law Reporter, Vol. 2 No. 11 (August 12, 1987)
•Toxic Tort Litigation the Future Impact of Current Legislation, Trial Magazine (October 1988), reprinted in The Superfund Report, Mealey Publications (December 1988)
•New Jersey Mass Torts & Class Action Treatise, Chapter 5 Environmental Torts 2016
•Legal and Liability Considerations in Asbestos, Chapter in The Hazardous Fiber, CRC Press, Inc. Trial Magazine (January 2012)
•Book Review: All the Money Justice Can Buy: Corporate Greed on Trial
Motley Rice LLC, a South Carolina Limited Liability Company, is engaged in the New Jersey practice of law through Motley Rice New Jersey LLC. Esther Berezofsky attorney responsible for New Jersey practice.
Awards, Accolades & Recognitions
Best Lawyers
Cherry Hill, NJ
2024-2026 Environmental law
2026 Mass tort litigation / class actions - plaintiffs
New Jersey Association for Justice
2021 Gerald B. O’Connor Award
2008 Gold Medal for Distinguished Service
National Law Journal
2021 Elite Women of the Plaintiffs' Bar*
2023 Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Trailblazers
Lawdragon
2020-2026 Lawdragon 500 Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers*
Asbestos, Consumer Fraud
Super Lawyers
2007-2022, 2024-2026 New Jersey Super Lawyers list
Blog Posts
December 13, 2019
‘Dark Waters:’ A study in the obsession required for pursuing justice Causes, Not Just Cases
by: Esther E. Berezofsky
News
April 28, 2025
The history and legacy of Workers’ Memorial Day
by:
M. Nolan Webb
April 1, 2025
Finish the asbestos ban to improve worker safety
by:
Nathan D. Finch
