“For as long as I can remember, toxic tort litigation was the heart of the conversation at every Friday night family dinner. Specifically, my father, Arthur, would gush over the trajectory of his work helping the “people who built New York.” Dad would harp on how we help the forever-broken families who lost loved ones and also help the living individuals who are devastatingly and terminally ill. While I grew up dead-set on becoming a stand-up comedian and still share those aspirations, the importance of helping victims was heavily ingrained into me as a value and was also in my blood, casting me into the attorney that I now am. As a lawyer for my own family’s office, I not only feel fulfilled in being on the plaintiff’s side where I protect the lives of the injured, but I sit at my own family dinner table and share the same stories with my children that my father shared with me.”
Before pursuing her law degree from Fordham University School of Law, Ms. Luxenberg worked as a paralegal in Weitz & Luxenberg’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey office, where she acted as a leader and a listener. There, she helped spearhead Weitz & Luxenberg’s child sex abuse unit, where she interviewed hundreds of vulnerable individuals who were sexually abused by clergy members when they were young. After engaging in emotional and personal phone conversations with our vulnerable clients, and homing her skill as a listener, she wrote vivid reports on their behalf to file with the Special Master’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), which compensated them for past abuses.
“At the time, the statute of limitations unfairly barred our clients from bringing charges for past sexual abuses, and compensation through the IRCP was our clients’ only recourse. Therefore, my reports not only had to be detailed and descriptive, but also had to present compelling and convincing arguments as to why our clients deserved to benefit from the IRCP. It was through some of my work that the legislature in New York and New Jersey eventually passed laws to amend the draconian effects of the statute of limitations.”
Ms. Luxenberg came to Weitz & Luxenberg as an attorney in the appellate unit and then shifted to the negligence unit to work in sexual abuse, where her roots were laid. Only one month after her admission to the New York State bar, she argued at the appellate level, winning, taking after her iconic father.
Ms. Luxenberg has proven to be a talented writer, voracious arguer, and personal cheerleader to both her colleagues at the office and her very own clients.
Ms. Luxenberg advocates that being a mother to three small boys deserves a paragraph in her bio, especially because two of them were born during her time in law school where she was the co-president of the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, an intern for Mercy for Animals, and a staff member on the Environmental Law Review.
“Managing law school, the bar exam preparation, and extracurriculars with children who literally relied on me to be nursed and fed will forever feel like my greatest accomplishment. But I will certainly never forget the day I went into labor just 48 hours after my corporations exam and crafting the email to my professors alerting them to the news that the baby decided he owed no more duty of loyalty to my uterus!”
Although Ms. Luxenberg will never stop dreaming about becoming a famous comedian, she is thrilled to be part of Weitz & Luxenberg’s team where she can perform for the court, the judges, her clients, and her colleagues.
