Case Closed: A Practical Guide to Mastering Pretrial Advocacy, First Edition

Veronica J. Finkelstein is an Associate Professor of Law at the Wilmington University School of Law. Finkelstein spent a majority of her career as an Assistant United States Attorney before transitioning to a full-time teaching. While in government practice, Finkelstein handled various civil affirmative and defensive matters as well as 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.

In addition to practicing, Finkelstein spent much of her career teaching lawyers and law students. She regularly taught at the United States 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, Finkelstein served as adjunct faculty of law at Drexel Law, Emory Law, and Rutgers Law. At Drexel, she was awarded the university-wide Adjunct Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015 and the law school’s Carl “Tobey” Oxholm III Outstanding Contribution to the Thomas R. Kline School of Law Community Award in 2021. At Rutgers she was named Rutgers Law School’s Adjunct Professor of the Year every year she taught there.

Finkelstein’s scholarship is as diverse as her litigation and teaching experience. She 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. She regularly coaches competitive high school, college, and law school advocacy teams.