Biography

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 as well as a skilled educator with diverse scholarly interests. Finkelstein currently works as an assistant U.S. attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia, PA. She has served as the civil division training officer and paralegal supervisor for the civil division prior to being selected for her current role as senior litigation counsel.

As an assistant U.S. attorney, Finkelstein handles a variety of civil affirmative and defensive matters as well as criminal child exploitation cases. She has tried numerous civil cases to defense verdicts including in tort, employment law, and medical malpractice cases. She has also successfully litigated cases on appeal. In addition to this defensive work, Finkelstein investigates and prosecutes 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 United States Attorney. Prior to 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 both Duane Morris, LLP and Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, PC.

Finkelstein is a gifted teacher who regularly works with both lawyers and law students. She 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 programs on depositions, motion practice, and trial advocacy. She serves as adjunct faculty of law at 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 from 2007 to the present. Finkelstein’s scholarship is as diverse as her litigation and teaching experience. Her scholarship has addressed a variety of 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. Prior to law school, she graduated from Pennsylvania State University with dual distinction and dual honors in both English and Speech Communication. She was selected as one of two college debaters representing the United States of America on the Committee for International Debate and Discussion World Tour. She was also the Pennsylvania State Champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.