About Melinda
Melinda Ghilardi earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Scranton and received her J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1983. Her legal education placed her in the cohort of lawyers who began practicing in the mid-1980s, a period of significant change in both criminal and civil practice. Those formative years informed the two strands of her later work: trial and appellate litigation.
She has served as First Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. In that capacity she worked in the federal criminal justice system and held a supervisory role within the office. Her courtroom experience spans federal district courts, and she is admitted to practice before appellate bodies, including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States. Her admissions also include the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
Ghilardi has maintained an active presence in professional organizations. She has been part of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice Womens Leaders Section since 2021 and joined two practice groups of the American Association for Justice in 2020: the Insurance Law Section’s Business Interruption Task Force and the Nursing Home Litigation Group. Her work with the Pennsylvania Bar Association dates back longer; she served on its Board of Governors from 2012 to 2015 and has been a Unit County Governor since 2019.
Her career also intersects with private plaintiff-side practice. Records list affiliations with Munley Law across multiple office locations. Those listings reflect a connection to a firm that handles personal injury and civil litigation matters. Taken together with her association work, they point to experience in insurance-related litigation, nursing home claims and business-interruption disputes.
Ghilardi’s background combines federal criminal defense leadership and civil litigation involvement. She practices in federal and state courts, and she holds admission credentials that permit appellate work. Colleagues describe her as someone who has moved between institutional roles and trial work over a multi-decade career.
She currently practices at Munley Law and handles civil litigation matters alongside work in federal courts, appellate filings and related litigation tasks.
