Who I Am
Professional Background
I have practiced law in New Mexico since 2004, and operated my own firm since 2014. During my first decade as an attorney, I worked for judges, both trial and appellate, state and federal. I served as an Administrative Law Judge for the State of New Mexico and focused on adjudicating employment disputes. I also worked at a multi-state law firm where I represented public entities and corporate clients. While working as a staff attorney at the Southwest Women’s Law Center, I drafted legislation and testified in the Legislature on behalf of educational equity legislation that the governor signed into law.
My Work Today
Now my work focuses on helping nonprofit organizations in all stages, from start-up to management decisions to achieving policy goals, including through impact litigation; representing the state’s largest political party and its candidates throughout the electoral process; providing guidance to food business entrepreneurs; and filing impact litigation, such as consumer class actions against factory farms.
As a former employee of large and small nonprofits, and having served as a nonprofit board president, I am well versed in assisting nonprofits in starting and managing their affairs.
I am committed to promoting the local food economy and sustainable food systems by representing clients who also care for animals, people, and the planet.
I work on a full-range of political and legal issues, including fast-paced litigation, to support efficient resolution of disputes that can occur during election season.
Elsner Law represents nonprofit organizations and individual consumers in class actions filed against large food companies, with an emphasis on addressing consumer deception perpetrated by industrial agricultural facilities, commonly called factory farms. The cases have sought injunctive relief (i.e. asking the factory farms to change their practices), as well as monetary damages (which have included reimbursement to consumers).
Outside the Office
I grew up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest and first landed in New Mexico when I accepted a middle school teaching job in rural New Mexico in the 1990s. After completing law school in Manhattan, I came right back to New Mexico and have called it home ever since.
It’s no coincidence that even outside the office or courtroom, I’m into high altitude endurance activities. I have run multiple marathons and half marathons around the country and have cycled a century (100 miles) on northern New Mexico’s roads. Some of my most carefree moments have been heading up a mountain with a 30-pound pack for wilderness backpacking in the summer, downhill skiing in the winter, or tending to our year-round backyard food garden, whether we are in the middle of a heat wave and drought or are shoveling snow to harvest dinner.
Credentials
B.A., Vassar College, cum laude in materia subjecta
J.D., New York University Law School
New Mexico State Bar, licensed to appear in all state courts
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, admitted
Admitted Pro Hac Vice in California to federal courts and Alameda County Superior Court
Judicial Clerkships & Service
The Honorable James A. Parker, United States District Court, District of New Mexico
The Honorable Patricio M. Serna, New Mexico Supreme Court
The Honorable Robert Hayes Scott, United States District Court, District of New Mexico
New Mexico Supreme Court Rules of Professional Conduct Committee, appointed by Court
Speaking and Teaching
Administrative Law Institute CLE, Election Law & The Hatch Act
Santa Fe Community Foundation, Navigating Nonprofit Advocacy
Delicious New Mexico, Food Entrepreneurs Workshop
Lewis & Clark Law School, Animal Law Litigation Clinic
University of New Mexico School of Law, Unemployment Compensation Appeals
U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico, Federal Judicial Law Clerk Training
Continuing Education
Impact Fund Class Action Training Institute, 2020
Michigan State University College of Law, Food Law Current Issues Seminar, 2016