This presentation provides litigators with a practical, strategy-focused overview of essential Federal Rules of Evidence encountered in modern litigation. Through selected rules governing relevance, hearsay, documents, judicial notice, and presentation of proof, the session emphasizes how evidentiary decisions affect case development from investigation through trial. The program is designed to enhance both advocacy skills and evidentiary judgment in real-world litigation settings.
June 3, 1:00 PM ET/10:00 AM PT, 90 minute webinar
- Why Evidence Rules Matter from Case Intake to Trial
- Overview of how the Federal Rules of Evidence shape litigation strategy from evaluating claims through trial and appeal.
- Setting the framework for the rules discussed in the session.
- Relevance and Exclusion of Evidence: FRE 401 and 403
- Explanation of relevance as a foundational evidentiary concept.
- Discussion of how courts balance probative value against unfair prejudice, confusion, and waste of time.
- Completing the Picture and Presenting Evidence Effectively: FRE 106 and 107
- Discussion of the Rule of Completeness and the strategic use of illustrative aids.
- Explanation of how advocates can prevent misleading presentations and assist the factfinder without creating unfair prejudice.
- Judicial Notice and Proof of Facts: FRE 201
- Examination of judicial notice, including what facts qualify and how and when notice may be taken.
- Discussion of the different consequences in civil versus criminal cases.
- Documents and the Best Evidence Rule: FRE 1002
- Review of when originals are required, and when duplicates or summaries may suffice.
- Examination of how litigators can manage voluminous records efficiently.
- Hearsay Foundations and Key Exceptions: FRE 801 and 803
- Analysis of hearsay definitions, non-hearsay exclusions, and commonly invoked exceptions.
- Exceptions to be discussed include business records, public records, medical treatment statements, and market reports.
- Authentication of Evidence: FRE 901
- Practical guidance on authenticating evidence through witness testimony, distinctive characteristics, handwriting, voice identification, and other commonly used methods.
- Discussion of how to authenticate in a meaningful way that advances case themes and theories.
- Summaries to Prove Content: FRE 1006
- Discussion of when to use summaries and how to use them effectively.
- Review of when originals are required.
- Examination of how litigators can manage voluminous records efficiently.
- Q&A (As Time Permits)
Speakers
About Veronica Finkelstein
Professor
Wilmington University School of Law
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.
Reuben Guttman
Founding Member
Guttman & Buschner, PLLC
Reuben Guttman is a founding member of Guttman & Buschner, PLLC where — in addition to mediating cases — his practice involves civil rights, whistleblowers, class actions and complex litigation.
The International Business Times has referred to him as “one of the world’s most prominent whistleblower attorneys.” Citing “wins recouping billions of dollars for the federal and state governments,” STAT News referred to him as the “The Lawyer Pharma Loves to Hate.”
Guttman has represented workers, unions, and pension funds in complex litigation. For over a decade, he served as the chief outside counsel to the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union, AFL-CIO/CLC, in a series of labor and environmental cases that enhanced safety and environmental conditions at Manhattan Project nuclear weapons sites while driving dread disease compensation legislation for nuclear weapons workers across the nation.
In 2020, he served as lead counsel in a federal class action lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections and secured a consent order mandating Hepatitis C testing and treatment for 17,000 inmates.
His defense work has included First Amendment work for a newspaper group and jury trial civil fraud defense.
Guttman is currently a faculty member of the American University School of Public Affairs where he teaches Equal Protection/Civil Rights, and he has been an Adjunct Professor at Emory Law School and a Senior Fellow at Emory Law’s Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. He is a Founder and Senior Advisor to the Emory Corporate Governance and Accountability Review (ECGAR). He is the 2015 recipient of the Emory Law Alumni Service Award.
He has taught trial advocacy and complex case investigations in the United States, China, and Mexico, and he has co-authored three case files – two published by Emory Law and one published by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy where he is a faculty member.
He is co-author (with J.C. Lore III of Rutgers Law) of the textbook, Pretrial Advocacy (Wolters Kluwer Spring, 2021). He is a chapter co-author (with Traci Buschner) and wrote the introduction for Remote Advocacy: A Guide to Survive and Thrive (Wolters Kluwer and National Institute of Trial Advocacy, 2020). He is co-author of False Claims Act: Representing the Plaintiffs (LEXIS/NEXIS Practice Guide, 2025).
Guttman has written or co-authored more than 100 articles or opinion pieces and multiple book chapters and law review pieces. He has been a columnist for Law360 where he writes on litigation and politics, and he has been a columnist for the Global Legal Post.
His article, Pharmaceutical Regulation in the United States; a Confluence of Influences, was translated and published in Mandarin in the Peking University Public Interest Law Journal, Vol 1, Page 187 (2010).
Guttman is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; he is past member of the Board of Directors of the American Constitution Society (ACS) where he is currently a member of the ACS Board of Advisors.
Guttman received his JD from Emory University and his BA in American History from the University of Rochester. He is the founder of www.whistleblowerlaws.com.
He began his legal career as a Washington DC counsel for the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, where he served for five years. Guttman is licensed to practice in front of The United States Supreme Court and in Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia.
Presented by Justia Connect. Click Here to Register and for more information.
