Sally F. Goldfarb’s teaching and scholarship focus on family law, sex discrimination, and torts. In recognition of her expertise on legal remedies for violence against women, Professor Goldfarb has advised the United Nations, was invited to the White House, and received a 20/20 Vision Award from the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Before joining the Rutgers faculty, Professor Goldfarb was a senior staff attorney at the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, where she helped draft the federal Violence Against Women Act and founded and chaired the national coalition that spurred its passage. Previously, she worked as a judicial clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin; as a Georgetown University Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at National Women’s Law Center; and as an assistant attorney general in the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

Professor Goldfarb is a frequent participant in academic symposia and is the author of many articles and book chapters. Several of her publications have been excerpted in casebooks that are used at law schools throughout the country. She has served on many boards and commissions, including the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Women in the Courts and the Board of Advisers for the American Law Institute's Principles of the Law of Family Dissolution. Professor Goldfarb is the recipient of four teaching awards at Rutgers and has also taught at Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law, and University of Pennsylvania Law School. She graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and received her law degree from Yale Law School.

Law Review Articles and Book Chapters

Legal Recognition of Plural Unions: Is a Nonmarital Relationship Status the Answer to the Dilemma?, 58 Family Court Review 157 (2020)

Violence against Women and Women’s Legal Rights: International and U.S. Perspectives, 38 Women’s Rights Law Reporter 340 (2017) (symposium issue)

Divorcing Marriage from Sex: Radically Rethinking the Role of Sex in Marriage Law in the United States, 6 Oñati Socio-Legal Series 1276, International Institute for the Sociology of Law (2016)

International Human Rights Law on Violence against Women and Children and Its Impact on Domestic Law and Action, in Women and Children as Victims and Offenders (Helmut Kury, Slawomir Redo & Evelyn Shea eds., Springer 2016) (coauthor with Julie Goldscheid)

Who Pays for the “Boomerang Generation”?: A Legal Perspective on Financial Support for Young Adults, 37 Harvard Journal of Law & Gender 45 (2014)

A Clash of Cultures: Women, Domestic Violence, and Law in the United States, in Gender and Culture at the Limit of Rights (Dorothy Hodgson ed., University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011)

Viewing the Violence Against Women Act Through the Lenses of Feminist Legal Theory, 31 Women’s Rights Law Reporter 198 (2010) (symposium issue)

Reconceiving Civil Protection Orders for Domestic Violence: Can Law Help End the Abuse Without Ending the Relationship?, 29 Cardozo Law Review 1487 (2008), excerpted in Douglas E. Abrams et al., Contemporary Family Law (4th ed. 2015, 3d ed. 2012); James Dwyer, Family Law (2012); Nancy K.D. Lemon, Domestic Violence Law (4th ed. 2013, 3d ed. 2009); Elizabeth M. Schneider et al., Domestic Violence and the Law (3d ed. 2013, 2d ed. Supp. 2008); D. Kelly Weisberg, Domestic Violence (2012)

Good Practices in the Legal Response to Domestic Violence in the United States, in Family Law: Balancing Interests and Pursuing Priorities (Lynn D. Wardle & Camille S. Williams eds., 2007)

Granting Same-Sex Couples the “Full Rights and Benefits" of Marriage: Easier Said Than Done, 59 Rutgers Law Review 281 (2007) (symposium issue)

Disasters, Families, and the Law, 28 Women's Rights Law Reporter 35 (2007) (symposium issue)

Public Rights for "Private" Wrongs: Sexual Harassment and the Violence Against Women Act, in Directions in Sexual Harassment Law (Catharine MacKinnon & Reva Siegel eds., Yale University Press, 2004)

Applying the Discrimination Model to Violence Against Women: Some Reflections on Theory and Practice, 11 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 251 (2003) (symposium issue)

The Supreme Court, the Violence Against Women Act, and the Use and Abuse of Federalism, 71 Fordham Law Review 57 (2002), excerpted in Elizabeth M. Schneider et al., Domestic Violence and the Law (3d ed. 2013, 2d ed. 2008)

Visitation for Nonparents After Troxel v. Granville: Where Should States Draw the Line?, 32 Rutgers Law Journal 783 (2001) (symposium issue)

"No Civilized System of Justice": The Fate of the Violence Against Women Act, 102 West Virginia Law Review 499 (2000) (Edward G. Donley Memorial Lecture; symposium issue), excerpted in Martha R. Mahoney et al., Social Justice: Professionals, Communities, and Law (2d ed. 2013, 1st ed. 2003)

Violence Against Women and the Persistence of Privacy, 61 Ohio State Law Journal 1 (2000), excerpted in Elizabeth M. Schneider et al., Domestic Violence and the Law (3d ed. 2013, 2d ed. 2008)

Family Law, Marriage, and Heterosexuality: Questioning the Assumptions, 7 Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review 285 (1998) (symposium issue)

The Civil Rights Remedy of the Violence Against Women Act: Legislative History, Policy Implications & Litigation Strategy, 4 Journal of Law & Policy 391 (1996) (symposium issue)

Alimony, Maintenance and Spousal Support, in Women and the Law (Carol H. Lefcourt ed., 1989)

Marital Partnership and the Case for Permanent Alimony, in Alimony: New Strategies for Pursuit and Defense (American Bar Association Section of Family Law ed., 1988), reprinted in 27 Journal of Family Law 351 (1989), excerpted in Peter Nash Swisher et al., Family Law (3d ed. 2012)                                 

Child Support Guidelines: A Model for Fair Allocation of Child Care, Medical, and Educational Expenses, 21 Family Law Quarterly 325 (1987)

Selected Other Publications

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Symposium on International Women’s Rights: Promoting Global Equality for Women through the Law: Ending Violence against Women, 34 Women’s Rights Law Reporter 118 (2013)

Rutgers Professors Weigh In on Healthcare, Reproductive Rights, Taxation, and Unemployment, Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy Blog (2013) (with Philip Harvey, Michael Livingston, and Rand Rosenblatt)

Symposium Celebrating the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act, 11 Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law 519 (2010)

The Legal Response to Violence Against Women in the United States of America: Recent Reforms and Continuing Challenges, available on the website of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (2008)

Combating Violence Against Women in the Legal Domain, available on the website of the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (2005)

Violence Against Women, in Women's Rights in Theory and Practice: Employment, Violence and Poverty (Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2002)

Malpractice, in The Oxford Companion to American Law (2002)

One-Sided Reforms: Proposed Changes in Child Support Rules Would Hurt Children, Asbury Park Press, Nov. 20, 1996, at A15 (op-ed article, with Ann E. Freedman; similar articles in The Record and The Courier-News)

Statement on the Violence Against Women Act, before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee (1993), excerpted in Elizabeth M. Schneider et al., Domestic Violence and the Law (3d ed. 2013, 2d ed. 2008)

Protecting Access to Health Care for Women: A Guide to Legal Strategies to Prohibit Violence and Interference at Clinics (NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund 1991) (coauthor)

Alimony, Family Advocate, Winter 1990, at 28

What Every Lawyer Should Know About Child Support Guidelines, 13 Family Law Reporter (BNA) 3031 (1987), reprinted in Margaret Campbell Haynes et al., American Bar Association, Child Support Reference Manual IV-71 (1990)

Protecting Young Women's Right to Abortion: A Guide to Parental Notification and Consent Laws (NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund 1990) (coauthor)

Working with Child Support Guidelines:  Ensuring a Fair Award, Trial, April 1989, at 43

Dealing with Extraordinary Expenses, Family Advocate, Spring 1988, at 38

A Victory in the Poverty War:  Judges Can More Easily Compel Payment of Child Support, Los Angeles Daily Journal, June 6, 1988, at 4 (op-ed article)

Child Support Guidelines and Child Care, Medical and Educational Expenses, in Essentials of Child Support Guidelines Development: Economic Issues and Policy Considerations (1987)

Recognizing the Homemaker's Contribution to Appreciation of Separate Property, Family Law Review, March 1987, at 11

Choosing Between Federal Tax Benefits for Dependent Care Expenses: Salary Reduction Versus the Dependent Care Credit, 63 Taxes 477 (1985)

Selecting a Tax Treatment Plan for Dependent Care:  A Comparison Between Salary Reduction and the Dependent Care Credit, in Dana Friedman, Corporate Financial Assistance for Child Care, Conference Board Research Bulletin No. 177 (The Conference Board, New York, NY), at 37 (1985)

• Family Law
• Sex Discrimination
• TORTS §2
• WOMENS RTS LAW REPOR

• Domestic Violence
• Family Law
• Torts