Cristina Fackler
Cristina Fackler serves as a Deputy County Attorney in the Domestic Violence Specialized Unit for Douglas County, Nebraska, where she is dedicated to aggressively prosecuting domestic violence and special victims cases. In her role, she reviews overnight arrest reports, makes charging decisions, appears in court daily for motions and bond hearings, and prepares cases for plea negotiations or trial. Her work centers on protecting vulnerable victims and ensuring accountability, guided by a deep commitment to equal justice under the law.
Originally born and raised in Romania, Cristina’s passion for justice was shaped by witnessing inequities in a post-communist legal system. Determined to pursue a career grounded in fairness and integrity, she moved to Germany, mastered the language at an academic level, and earned her law degree from the University of Cologne before obtaining her German law license in 2014. After gaining litigation experience in Germany and the United States, she relocated permanently to the U.S., completed additional legal studies at Creighton University School of Law, and was admitted to the Nebraska Bar. Her earlier career included insurance defense litigation involving personal injury, wrongful death, motor vehicle and trucking accidents, and premises liability, as well as service as a Special Assistant Attorney General representing the State of Nebraska in juvenile proceedings.
A trilingual attorney licensed in both the United States and Germany, Cristina is known for her courtroom presence, strategic litigation skills, and ability to build strong rapport with victims and colleagues alike. Beyond her prosecutorial work, she is an advocate for lawyer well-being and mental health awareness, frequently speaking and writing about mindfulness, resilience, and balance within the legal profession. Her journey—from humble beginnings to serving as a prosecutor in a specialized domestic violence unit—reflects her enduring belief that justice should not depend on background or connections, but on fairness, courage, and the rule of law.
• Nebraska State Bar Commission
• Land Saarbrucken Germany
• Creighton University School of Law
• University of Cologne
• Published Author in Law Journal
• Nebraska Bar Association
• Omaha Bar Association
• Volunteers Lawyers Project (Committee Member)
• Volunteers Lawyers Project - Attorney Mental Health and Well-being Committee
What do you attribute your success to?
I think when there is no other chance but to either make it or go under, it's sink or swim, and I think you'll learn how to swim. Not having a net, whether that be financially or in any sort of way, I knew that I was on my own and it was gonna be me. There's no savior, nobody's coming, and I was gonna have to do something with my life beyond just being like what I saw around me, and that was suboptimal. So I think very early on, I understood that I'm on my own, and that I have to make it.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
AI is truly one of the biggest issues because it has so many facets. There's AI interfering with professional judgment, where lawyers are starting to become bound to outside systems that say you have a 30% chance of winning this motion and you shouldn't go forward, but maybe an attorney's experience or gut feeling says something differently. So then can that attorney be sued if they don't follow the AI advice? I recently had a domestic violence case where the defense attorney told me their client had put all of their conversations into ChatGPT and asked ChatGPT for its advice. There's the judge's part as well, because AI is trying to influence judicial decisions under the guise of trying to become more unbiased, but AI is nothing but big data gathering, so if we're training on biased data, how can we have unbiased results? Aside from AI, I believe we as a species have become less and less collegial, social, and tolerant of each other. It is due to being stuck to our phones 24/7. We have forgotten how to communicate, we have forgotten how to make eye contact, how to connect with a human. The way that manifests, especially for me in prosecution, is that there's more and more aggression, and aggression taken to extremes, and people not being able to self-soothe and to have coping mechanisms. We see extreme behaviors which maybe 30 or 40 years ago people out of common courtesy would not have engaged in. There's almost this sense that people are unhinged nowadays in comparison to before, and I think it's only gonna get worse.