Elaine B. Goldsmith

Elaine Goldsmith has a wealth of business-related knowledge and experience as a Workers’ Compensation Court Judge, and for decades as a senior administrator in both the executive and judicial branches of State and Federal government. Currently, she is actively engaged as a dispute resolution professional.

Workers’ Compensation

Goldsmith served for over eleven years as a Judge of the New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Court, addressing issues of liability and scope and extent of injuries and evaluating complex medical expert testimony. She had an excellent record of affirmations of her opinions by the appellate division, and her only case appealed higher was affirmed by the New Jersey State Supreme Court.

Government Administration

For ten years in the prestigious position of Clerk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, she supervised a 56-employee organization with a $3 million budget, managing over four thousand filings per year. During her tenure she substantially reduced times of case disposition, substantially increased office efficiency, and introduced a LAN based computer system.

Earlier, Goldsmith served for four years as the first administrator of the New Jersey Tax Court. In this new position, she established an organization to eliminate a ten-year backlog, designed and implemented innovative policies and procedures for the first large court in the nation devoted exclusively to state taxation cases, and implemented the first computerized tax processing system in the nation.

Before that, for five years as Executive Director, Executive Commission on Ethical Standards, she served as first chief of staff of this new agency to enforce the New Jersey Conflict of Interest Law. During her tenure she established innovative procedures for enforcement of the Law for State officers and employees, developed new procedures to deal with all conflict of interest contracts under the New Jersey Casino Control Law, and dramatically reduced government contracting costs by prosecuting improprieties in the contract-letting process within and by executive agencies.

Law Practice

After law school, Goldsmith served as law clerk to a New Jersey Superior Court judge, was in general law practice, and was a Seton Hall Law School Adjunct Professor instructing sixty clinical law students in litigation and trial techniques. She is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, United States Tax Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and the Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Dispute Resolution

Goldsmith is a formally trained and active dispute resolution professional. She is certificated by the American Arbitration Association, Seton Hall Law School’s Institute for Dispute Resolution, and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education as a Court-Approved Mediator. In addition to her other dispute resolution activities, she serves regularly as a volunteer mediator in the Somerset County (NJ) Small Claims Court.

Professional Organizations

Goldsmith serves on the New Jersey Supreme Court Committees on Character and Fitness, and Women in the Courts. In the New Jersey State Bar Association, she serves in the Women’s Rights Section, the Program Committee, Judicial Administration Committee, Federal Practice Committee, Taxation Committee, ICLE Curriculum Advisory Committee, and the Workers’ Compensation Committee. She is a past president of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association.

Avocations

As a volunteer for the Blind and Visually Impaired Association, Goldsmith prepares disks for disabled school children. She has an insatiable passion for learning. She is a voracious reader of history, biographies, art, and new ideas. She has traveled extensively throughout the United States and to Mexico, Central America, Peru, Ecuador, Great Britain, Europe, Scandinavia, Croatia, and China. She is an avid tennis player and a sometime contract bridge player.

Education

Goldsmith earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree at the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor degree at Seton Hall Law School. She has completed numerous courses in employment law, and graduate level courses in Taxation at New York University Law School. She received her executive education and training at the Institute for Senior Court Executives and the National Judicial College of Court Administration.