Pennsylvania Super Lawyers 2011

Nine Kline & Specter lawyers were named as 2011 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers, with Tom Kline selected as the state’s No. 1 attorney an unprecedented eighth consecutive year and Shanin Specter selected in the Top 10 for the sixth time in a row.

The others selected were Andrew J. Stern, Lee B. Balefsky, Michelle L. Tiger, Andrew S. Youman, Charles L. Becker, head of the firm’s Appellate Division, David J. Caputo and Garabet M. Zakeosian, one of Kline & Specter’s seven
attorneys who are also doctors.

For Kline, becoming Pennsylvania Super Lawyers’ Top Point Getter for the eighth straight year was a first for any lawyer in any state. He has been recognized over the years for a myriad of legal victories, including his leadership role in the nationwide Vioxx litigation that produced a $4.85 billion benefiting hundreds of Kline & Specter clients and thousands of others. The immediate past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates, Kline currently is representing more than 100 clients in litigation over toxic denture creams. In 2010 he won a $5.2 million jury verdict in the year’s largest Philadelphia medical malpractice award and he obtained a $10.5 million settlement with the City of Philadelphia and Department of Human Services in a federal case involving a Philadelphia teenager who died after he was placed in a restraint hold at a Tennessee treatment center. (See news coverage)

Specter in 2010 and 2011 won several major cases. In McKinney v. Philadelphia Housing Authority he negotiated an $11.9 million settlement, one of the largest civil rights suit recoveries on record, on behalf of a child severely injured due to mold exposure in public-subsidized housing. (News coverage) In November 2010, he secured a $27.6 million jury verdict arising from the negligence of a medical device manufacturer and a public relations company which injured a patient while making a promotional video following her knee surgery. (News coverage) In April 2011, Specter won a $21.6 million verdict against an Erie, Pa., hospital for a baby severely injury during birth. The verdict was reportedly the largest personal injury verdict in the history of Erie County. (News coverage)

For Stern, winner of Pennsylvania’s only $100 million medical malpractice verdict, the selection to Super Lawyers was his seventh in a row. For Balefsky, head of the firm’s Mass Tort Department, it was his eighth straight time named to Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.

Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who "have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement." The multi-phase selection process includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations in voting across the state, followed by a Blue Ribbon Panel review.

Kline & Specter attorneys also were named in Pennsylvania Rising Stars, designating them as among the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state who are 40 or younger. They are Kila B. Baldwin, Lisa S. Dagostino, Dominic Guerrini, David K. Inscho and Regan S. Safier.

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