Faculty

Veronica Finkelstein, J.D.
Associate Professor

Veronica J. Finkelstein combines the best of practice and teaching, devoting herself to developing the next generation of top advocates. She is both an experienced litigator and a skilled educator with diverse scholarly interests. Finkelstein spent a majority of her career as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia before transitioning to a full-time teaching role at the Wilmington University School of Law.

At the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she served as the civil division training officer and paralegal supervisor for the Civil Division before being selected as senior litigation counsel. Finkelstein handled various civil affirmative and defensive matters and criminal child exploitation cases. She tried numerous civil cases to defense verdicts, including tort, employment law, and medical malpractice. She also successfully litigated cases on appeal.

In addition to this defensive work, Finkelstein investigated and prosecuted affirmative fraud claims, including qui tam actions. In 2014 she was awarded the Executive Office of United States Attorneys Director’s Award for Superior Performance as a Civil Assistant U.S. Attorney. Before joining the Department of Justice, Finkelstein clerked for the Honorable Jane Cutler Greenspan on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

She previously worked as a construction litigator at Duane Morris, LLP and Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, PC. A gifted teacher who regularly works with both lawyers and law students, Finkelstein has taught at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center on ethics, appellate advocacy, legal writing, and trial practice. She frequently serves as a program director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, where she teaches depositions, motion practice, and trial advocacy programs.

Prior to entering academia full time, Finkelsted served as adjunct faculty of law at Drexel Law, Emory Law, and Rutgers Law. She was awarded the Carl “Tobey” Oxholm III Outstanding Contribution to the Thomas R. Kline School of Law Community Award in 2021 and has been named Rutgers Law School Adjunct Professor of the Year every year she taught at Rutgers Law.

Finkelstein’s scholarship is as diverse as her litigation and teaching experience. Her scholarship has addressed various topics, from civil procedure to constitutional law.

She is the co-author of the Professional Responsibility textbook “Ethical Lawyering: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned,” which contextualizes the rules of professional conduct in realistic litigation settings.

Finkelstein graduated, with honors, from the Emory University School of Law. She was a highly competitive member of Emory Law’s moot court society and was selected for the Order of the Barristers.

Veronica Finkelstein's Philosophy

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