Judge Karoline Mehalchick of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania is the current Widener Law Commonwealth Jurist in Residence.

On July 11, 2023, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. nominated Judge Karoline Mehalchick to be a District Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 31, 2024. President Biden signed her commission on February 5, 2024, and she was sworn in as a District Judge on February 6, 2024. Prior to her confirmation as a District Judge, Judge Mehalchick served the Court as a United States Magistrate Judge for over a decade, having been appointed by the judges of the United States District Court to that position in July 2013. With that appointment, she became the first woman judge to sit in the Scranton vicinage of the Middle District of Pennsylvania. She was reappointed to the position for a second term in 2021 and appointed Chief Magistrate Judge in January 2021. In her decade as a magistrate judge, Judge Mehalchick presided over, served as a referral judge, or acted as a settlement officer in thousands of civil, criminal, and petty offense matters.

Judge Mehalchick is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College of the Pennsylvania State University, and the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she was a Tulane Law Scholarship recipient and student attorney in the Environmental Law Clinic. Upon graduating from law school in 2001, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Trish Corbett, the first woman judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County. After completing her clerkship with Judge Corbett, Judge Mehalchick joined the law firm of Oliver, Price & Rhodes in Clarks Summit, where she became a partner in 2008. While at the firm, Judge Mehalchick developed an extensive trial and appellate practice, and represented a broad range of clients in both state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. Judge Mehalchick was also an adjunct professor at Marywood University from 2003 until 2012.

In addition to her regular judicial duties, in 2021, Judge Mehalchick was appointed by United States Supreme Court Justice John Roberts to the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct. Additionally, Judge Mehalchick served two terms as a member of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts Magistrate Judges Advisory Group. She is also a member of the Committee on Workplace Conduct for the Third Judicial Circuit. Within the Middle District of Pennsylvania, Judge Mehalchick helped create the Prisoner Litigation Settlement Program. She also presides over the Scranton vicinage’s CARE court, the district’s reentry program.

Judge Mehalchick is an active member of her community, having served on the boards of Serving Seniors, Inc., the Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligence Charter School, the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce; and was co-chair of the Chamber’s Women’s Network Committee. She actively volunteered for many years with the Abington Gators Swim Team, serving as President of its Executive Board for two terms. Since September 2018, Judge Mehalchick has served as Vice President of Production for the Ballet Theatre of Scranton.

Judge Mehalchick is also an active member of the Federal, Pennsylvania, and Lackawanna Bar Associations. Judge Mehalchick currently serves as Treasurer of the Federal Bar Association and will become President-Elect of that national organization in October 2024. Judge Mehalchick is also a Past President of the Middle District of Pennsylvania Chapter of the FBA. She is a Past President of the Lackawanna Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division and served as the co-chair of the LBA’s Continuing Education Committee for several years. Judge Mehalchick is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, and previously served as Secretary of the Commission. For several years, she worked with the PBA’s High School Mock Trial Program, serving as District Coordinator of the program from 2004 through 2007, and as an Attorney Advisor to Abington Heights High School from 2001 through 2003.

Throughout her legal career, Judge Mehalchick has been recognized for her contributions to the bar and community and is a recipient of the PBA’s Michael K. Smith Excellence in Service Award, the LBA’s Margaret P. Gavin Award, which is presented to an outstanding young lawyer member of the Lackawanna Bar Association who is dedicated to service to the bar and community. Judge Mehalchick was recognized in 2012 as one of thirty-five Pennsylvania “Lawyers on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer, and in May 2020, the PBA’s Commission on Women in the Profession as a “Woman Trailblazer.”

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