PracticePerfect Evidence

Veronica J. Finkelstein is a 2004 graduate, with honors, of the Emory University School of Law and a 2001 graduate, with dual distinction and dual honors, of the Pennsylvania State University. Finkelstein currently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has served as the Civil Division Training Officer and Paralegal Supervisor for the civil division prior to being selected as Senior Litigation Counsel. As the Department of Justice, Finkelstein serves as primary litigation counsel for the United States. She handles a variety of civil affirmative and defensive matters as well as criminal child exploitation cases. She has also tried numerous civil cases to defense verdicts in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including in tort, employment law, and medical malpractice cases. She has successfully litigated cases on appeal before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. In addition to this defensive work, Finkelstein investigates and prosecutes affirmative fraud claims, including qui tam actions. She recently resolved civil allegations relating to two hospitals in Lancaster, Pennsylvania as part of a $260 million settlement arising out of fraudulent billing practices in multiple healthcare institutions across the United States.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Finkelstein clerked for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She also worked as an associate at Duane Morris, LLP and Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, PC, where she practiced construction law. In private practice, she first or second chaired jury trials, mediated or arbitrated cases, drafted pleadings, prepared witnesses, and engaged in deposition practice. She previously worked for the United States Department of Labor as a Pension and Welfare Benefits Advisor in its Atlanta Regional Office and for the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as a legal intern.

She has taught at the National Advocacy Center on ethics, appellate advocacy, legal writing, and trial practice. 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. In 2019, she was awarded the United States Department of Health and Human Services Offices of the Inspector General Cooperative Achievement Award. She frequently serves as a program director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Finkelstein also serves as adjunct faculty of law at Drexel Law, Emory Law, and Rutgers Law. She teaches a variety of courses including evidence, pretrial advocacy, trial advocacy, appellate advocacy, criminal law, and professional responsibility. She is the co-author of the Professional Responsibility textbook “Ethical Lawyering: A Guide for the Well-Intentioned” and has published a book chapter, several scholarly articles, and two moot court problems. 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 from 2007 to the present.