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. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before transitioning to a full-time teaching role at the Wilmington University School of Law. She remains a Litigative Consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, assisting with the Civil Division’s most complex cases.
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 successfully litigated cases on appeal, including Groff v. DeJoy which she briefed, argued, and won before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Supreme Court subsequently granted certiorari and clarified the applicable standard before remanding the case.
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 U.S. Attorney’s Office, 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 legal writing, ethics, appellate advocacy, and trial practice. She frequently serves as a program director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, where she teaches legal writing, deposition, motion practice, and trial advocacy programs.
Prior to entering academia full time, Finkelstein 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 was 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 as well as “Case Closed: A Practical Guide to Mastering Pretrial Advocacy,” a hands-on roadmap for litigators navigating the most critical — and often outcome‑determinative — phase of a lawsuit: pretrial practice.
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. She received her undergraduate degrees in English and Speech Communication from the Pennsylvania State University. She is currently pursing a Master of Law’s degree from Columbia Law School.
