The Honorable Karoline Mehalchick
United States District Judge - Middle District of Pennsylvania
President, Federal Bar Association
Judge Karoline Mehalchick serves as a District Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and is the President of the Federal Bar Association. Before her elevation to the bench, Judge Mehalchick served for more than a decade as a United States Magistrate Judge. She was the first woman to sit as a judge in the Scranton vicinage of the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was named Chief Magistrate Judge in 2021.
Judge Mehalchick is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College at The Pennsylvania State University and the Tulane University School of Law. In addition to her judicial duties, Judge Mehalchick has served on the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct, the Magistrate Judges Advisory Group of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, and the Third Circuit Judicial Council’s Reentry Courts and Workplace Conduct committees. She helped establish the Prisoner Litigation Settlement Program and presides over the Scranton CARE Court reentry program. She currently serves as Jurist in Residence at Widener Commonwealth Law School for the 2025–2027 term and teaches there as an adjunct professor.
In addition to serving as the President of the Federal Bar Association, Judge Mehalchick is a member of the Pennsylvania Lackawanna Bar Associations. She is also Vice President of Production for the Ballet Theatre of Scranton and participates in weekly scholar exchanges with the National Constitution Center.
Her professional recognitions include the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Michael K. Smith Excellence in Service Award, the Lackawanna Bar Association’s Margaret P. Gavin Award, designation as a Pennsylvania “Lawyer on the Fast Track” by The Legal Intelligencer, and recognition as a “Woman Trailblazer” by the PBA Commission on Women in the Profession.