Tom Kline

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In three decades of practicing personal injury law, Thomas R. Kline has forged an incomparable record of courtroom victories -- some with remarkable results against seemingly incredible odds. As a result Kline has received a litany of accolades and recognition, including his elected position as immediate past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates, described by The Washington Post as "a select group of 100 of the nation's most celebrated trial lawyers."

Kline also has been honored for seven consecutive years, 2004 through 2010, as the No. 1 attorney in Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers magazine. He was also chosen in 2010 as among the top 500 "Leading Lawyers in America" and as “the leading personal injury plaintiffs' lawyer in Pennsylvania” by the survey group Lawdragon, which also called Kline “one of Philadelphia’s legendary litigators.” The publication Best Lawyers selected Kline as Philadelphia Personal Injury Litigator of the Year for 2009 and Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year for 2010 while listing him among the nation's best lawyers every year since 1995. Kline was named to the National Law Journal's Winners Hall of Fame. And Kline was referred to recently by the Editorial Board of the The Philadelphia Inquirer as "the high-powered plaintiffs' attorney... who has won a number of eight-figure awards for clients injured or killed due to negligence or incompetence by businesses, government agencies, and nonprofit health-care providers."

Yet Kline, a former sixth grade school teacher from Hazleton, Pa., counts among his greatest honors the letters of thanks he has received from people and families he has represented, clients who suffered severe injuries or the loss of a loved one, clients for whom he was able to obtain a measure of justice.

Kline has appeared on hundreds of television news programs and been featured or quoted in hundreds more newspaper and magazine articles. In a cover story, the Philadelphia Daily News summarized Kline’s career in a profile titled "Wheels of Justice: The lawyer who beat SEPTA," an article in which Kline was described as "the Babe Ruth of personal injury litigation." The newspaper story followed the celebrated Hall v. SEPTA case, which resulted in a $51 million verdict for a four-year-old boy whose foot was torn off in a subway escalator. The 1999 case against the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority also resulted in Kline's selection to the "Winners" edition of The National Law Journal, which included him among "Ten of America's Top Litigators." In 2009 the publication selected Kline to its Winning Hall of Fame as one of fewer than 100 lawyers selected for compiling “significant bench or jury trial verdicts and who has a record of success over many years.”

Kline is known for his expertise in a courtroom, particularly his examination of witnesses and his moving opening and closing arguments. More than anything, he is known for getting results. Among his other better-known cases are:

• A $33.1 million jury award by a Lehigh County jury in Welteroth v. Spectrascan to the estate of a woman late diagnosed with breast cancer.
• The Sears case in which $15.2 million was awarded to a child who suffered brain injury during heart surgery.
• The Borkowski case in which a jury awarded $15 million to a Downs Syndrome child injured during heart surgery.
• An Indiana County jury’s multi-million dollar verdict in the Chichy case for a baby injured during delivery.
• A Montgomery County jury’s multi-million dollar verdict for the estate of a woman who died of breast cancer after a doctor misread her mammogram. The Lackman case was featured on ABC's Nightline.
• A $40.5 million settlement for six people killed and others injured in an explosion and fire at the Village Green apartment complex in Hatboro, Pa.
• The $36.4 million settlement with Motiva Enterprises for the death of a worker in an oil refinery explosion. The settlement was believed to be the largest-ever in the nation for a single worker death.
• A $29.6 million settlement for three women who were killed and others who were injured in the collapse of Pier 34 on the Delaware River, a case in which Kline was co-lead counsel.
• A $10 million agreement in the highly publicized Cozzolino case in which a kindergarten student was killed when a lunch table collapsed on him in the school cafeteria.
• The Keen case, in which Kline won an $18.5 million jury verdict for a 12-year-old girl who suffered heart damage due to a medical error.

Most recently, Kline in 2010 settled for $10.5 million a federal lawsuit in the case of a Philadelphia teenager who died after he was placed in a restraint hold at a Tennessee treatment center. Defendants included the City of Philadelphia and its Department of Human Services, which had sent the troubled youth to the facility. (See Leach)

In April 2009, Kline won a $3.2 million settlement for the husband of a Wayne County woman who was killed when her car struck a piece of farming equipment that broke loose from an oncoming truck. The settlement was believed to be the largest ever in the rural northeastern Pennsylvania county. (See Curtis)

In September 2008, Kline won a $5.5 million jury verdict for the family of an 18-year-old man fatally shot while working as a parking lot attendant at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. The hospital had failed to improve safety and security after an armed robbery at the same exit booth only 12 days earlier. (See Palmer)

In addition to his full catastrophic injury practice, Kline has been, as stated by The Wall Street Journal, a “key player” in the litigation over Vioxx, the pain medication removed from the market in late 2004. He is a member of the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee directing the federal MDL proceedings against Merck & Co. Kline took the testimony of top Merck executives and independent scientists which became key evidence at trial in numerous multi-million dollar awards against Merck and helped lead to a $4.85 billion settlement in which hundreds of Kline & Specter clients will benefit.

Tom Kline grew up in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region, son of a dress factory manager, and graduated from Albright College, where he has been honored with the school's Distinguished Alumni award. Kline began his professional career not as a lawyer but as a middle school teacher, teaching sixth grade social studies. He attended Lehigh University, where he earned a master's degree in American History and completed all of the Ph.D. course work. Kline then attended Duquesne University School of Law, where he graduated with the school's Distinguished Student Award and just this year received its Distinguished Alumni Award (see more). He went on to work as law clerk to Pennsylvania Supreme Court for Justice Thomas W. Pomeroy.

Kline's private legal career quickly blossomed, first at The Beasley Firm in Philadelphia and later, when he joined forces with Shanin Specter to open their own firm in 1995.

In the early 1980s Kline won a $5.1 million verdict against the makers of the Dalkon Shield, at the time the largest compensatory verdict in the United States against the maker of the defective birth control device. Later, in an epic legal struggle that spanned 16 years against a drug manufacturer, Kline won multi-million dollar punitive damage awards twice against Merrell Dow for its manufacture and sale of a prescription drug. (See Blum.)

Kline is a frequent lecturer at law schools, medical schools and continuing legal education programs. He has taught at many institutions from Temple University Beasley School of Law to Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. Kline has also taught complex litigation at The National Judicial College in Reno, Nev. And he has lectured to the Conference of State Trial Judges. In 2003, Kline was featured in the acclaimed 2003 Masters on Trial seminar. And Kline is the producer, director, writer and performer in the acclaimed one-man show "Trial As Theatre (TM)" as well as The Modern Trial and Tom Kline on Technology. He is the author of "Robert C. Grier: Jacksonian Unionist" and is the author of numerous other published articles. He recently wrote an Op-Ed piece for The Philadelphia Inquirer titled "Immunity Is Bad Medicine."

Kline is regional chairman of the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The 14-member citizen merit selection panel screens applicants for the federal bench and makes recommendations to the two senators from Pennsylvania, who in turn recommend candidates to the president. Kline has been a member of the committee since 1989 and its chairman since 1998. (read article)

Kline is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New York. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and other federal courts.

Kline is listed in Best Lawyers in America and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He is AV-rated in Martindale-Hubbell and is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, which limits membership to 500 attorneys in the United States recommended by their peers and trial judges for outstanding skills and abilities as well as character and integrity. Kline was also selected for the 2007 edition of the World's Leading Product Liability Lawyers.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Drexel University Earle Mack School of Law and the Board of Advisors of WXPN, the University of Pennsylvania public radio station.

To contact Tom Kline, email him at Tom.Kline@KlineSpecter.com