Celina Guerra
Legal Strategist, Climate Program
Celina Guerra (she/her) is a Legal Strategist with Public Citizen’s Climate Program. A career trial lawyer, she is an expert in criminal investigation and prosecution, complex trial practice, and the development of novel legal theories under untested statutes—the skill set at the heart of the effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the crimes it has committed. She has tried cases as both a prosecutor and as civil trial counsel, argued successfully before New York’s Appellate Division, and built cases of first impression on questions no court had yet answered.
Guerra spent five years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Trial Division of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where she specialized in complex and violent crime. There, she managed hundreds of cases from arrest to resolution, prosecuting charges ranging from fraud and burglary to kidnapping and murder; served as counsel in more than a dozen trials; and directed multi-agency investigations alongside state and federal law enforcement partners. As her bureau’s designated specialist on New York’s “Raise the Age” legislation, Guerra handled cases of first impression, helped the Office develop its protocols for justly implementing the new laws, and authored an interlocutory appellate brief that she argued successfully before the First Department. She also trained junior prosecutors and law students through the Office’s educator program and served as a community liaison, educating the public on domestic violence and fraud prevention. In the years since, Guerra has worked as trial counsel and consultant on a series of successful complex litigations, but public interest work has always been her calling.
A Texas native, Guerra lives and gardens in Westchester County, New York. She graduated cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law.