Michele Goldfarb

Michele Goldfarb is currently an Adjunct Faculty member in Penn Law’s Mediation Clinic.  Michele Goldfarb’s professional career has, in recent decades, been largely based in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania. She served in a number of roles at the University of Pennsylvania, including that of Associate Ombudsman and also as the Director of the Penn Women’s Center.  For many years (1995 – 2006 and 2012 - 2014), she was the director of the Office of Student Conduct at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was responsible for the oversight and administration of the student disciplinary system across the University.

Goldfarb has also served as a clinical supervisor and as an adjunct faculty member in Penn Law’s clinical programs for nearly two decades, in the Civil Practice clinic and primarily in the Mediation Clinic. She has continuously maintained her connection with Penn Law’s Clinical Programs because of her expertise and abiding passion for conflict resolution in general and mediation practice in particular. In addition to training law students in mediation skills through classroom work and supervision in mediation fieldwork, Goldfarb has also trained faculty, college administrators and students in mediation workshops in order to prepare them for University-based dispute resolution roles.

Goldfarb has also served on many University Committees charged with the creation and implementation of policy in a broad range of areas including academic integrity, substance abuse, confidentiality of student records, hazing and sexual misconduct.  She has led numerous workshops and trainings on academic integrity, ethical issues, conflict resolution and mediation. In recent years, Goldfarb has worked for the Pennsylvania Superior Court on its Central Legal Staff and in Philadelphia’s Municipal Court in its Dispute Resolution Program.  Before entering higher education teaching and administration, Goldfarb served as an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia and Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, D.C., where she prosecuted a wide variety of criminal offenses. As a full time supervisor and faculty member at the law school’s litigation clinic in the early 1990’s, she gained extensive experience as an advocate for families, women, children and victims of abuse and other violence. She held clerkships with the Hon. Stanley S. Harris, District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Hon. Phyllis W. Beck, Superior Court of Pennsylvania (the first female appellate judge in the Commonwealth). She is a proud graduate of Oberlin College.