Abraham J. Gafni

Professor Emeritus

Biography

Judge Abraham Gafni joined the faculty in 1994 as a professor of law. Previously, Gafni was an attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an appellate law clerk, in private practice, the Deputy District Attorney for Law of the City of Philadelphia and a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, where he served as Court Administrator of Pennsylvania for two years.

Gafni has lectured on various legal topics for, among others, the United States Department of Justice, the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the American Judicature Society, the Federal Trade Commission,  the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the Pennsylvania College of the Judiciary, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania District Attorneys’ Association, the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants and numerous county Bar Associations and professional legal associations. In addition, he has lectured in Israel at the Tel Aviv and Haifa University Law Schools as well as before the State of Israel labor law judges and social welfare ministry and in South Korea at Korea University.

He taught courses on professional responsibility, trial practice and the administration of criminal justice at both Villanova Law and Temple Law Schools for twenty years before coming to Villanova full-time. He also prepared many publications for the education of both the judiciary and the Bar and written articles for Temple Law Quarterly, Pennsylvania Law Quarterly and Judges’ Journal of Israel.

Gafni served in numerous professional and civic organizations, including as vice-chair of the Supreme Court Appellate Court Procedural Rules Committee, chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution and Professionalism Committees, and as chancellor of the Louis D. Brandeis Law Society Foundation. He also served as the president of the Arbitration Tribunal of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims.

In 2012, Gafni received the Sir Francis Bacon Award in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. In 2013, he was named the Lawyer of the Year in Arbitration in Philadelphia by Best Lawyers in America.

Practice Experience

• Attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, appellate law clerk, in private practice
• Deputy District Attorney for Law of the City of Philadelphia  Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia, where he served as Court Administrator of Pennsylvania for two years.