Rebecca Winkelstein is Of Counsel to Cooper Levenson and a member of the firm’s Appellate and Education Law practice groups. She provides motion practice and appellate support across multiple practice areas and has substantial experience in both State and Federal courts, including the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey. She has appeared in bench and jury trials, arbitrations, and administrative hearings, including before the National Labor Relations Board and Office of Administrative Law, and has worked alongside federal and state agencies on compliance, investigations, and audits.
Rebecca began working with Cooper Levenson in 2010, assisting the firm’s education law clients with matters such as tenure and personnel issues, public bidding and contracts, student and public records claims, the First Amendment, special education, harassment, intimidation, and bullying, as well as policy development and related litigation. She relocated to New York in 2014 and practiced at a boutique litigation firm in North Jersey, representing private and public sector employers in counseling, policy development, and litigation involving discrimination and constitutional claims. She returned to Cooper Levenson in 2022.
Prior to joining the firm, Rebecca served as a child advocate attorney with the Defender Association of Philadelphia, acting as counsel and guardian ad litem for abused and neglected children in Philadelphia Dependency Court. She also clerked for New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice John E. Wallace, Jr. (ret.).
While in law school, Rebecca was Executive Editor of the Rutgers Law Journal, a Teaching Assistant for Legal Research and Writing/Moot Court, and received the 2007 Reed Smith Pro Bono Award for Clinical Excellence. She also interned for U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Ann Marie Donio and externed in the Office of Counsel to the Governor of New Jersey.
Articles
On Sunlight and Disinfectant: How a Recent Decision on the Sunshine Law will Affect School Boards, School Leader Magazine (November/December 2011)
A Statute Prohibiting “Public Sex Shows” Violates the Free Expression Clause to the Oregon Constitution, 37 Rutgers L.J. 1545 (2006)
