Carol Dembe

Carol R. Dembe, M.D., J.D. is an experienced physician who for years helped people in need of emergency medical care. Now, having earned a law degree, she is putting her skills and energy to work for clients in need of legal assistance.

Since joining Kline & Specter in 2005 Dr. Dembe has worked on medical malpractice, product liability and workplace injury litigation. She is a member of the firm’s impressive five-member doctor/lawyer team.

In a recent case, Dembe in February 2007 was co-counsel in a case in which an $8 million settlement was negotiated for the estate of a man killed when he fell into a high-temperature pulping pit at a Manayunk paper mill. (See Green.)

Dr. Dembe is board certified in emergency medicine and has worked as an emergency physician at five hospitals: Baker Hospital in North Charleston, S.C.; University Hospital in Stony Brook, N.Y., where she was also a lecturer at the State University of New York’s Health Science Center; Good Samaritan Hospital, in Lebanon, Pa.; Hahnemann University Hospital, in Philadelphia; and Montgomery Hospital, In Norristown, Pa.

In addition to patient care at Hahnemann, she was director of the hospital’s Emergency Department of Clinical Operations and the University Medvac (helicopter) transport operation. At Hahnemann she also oversaw quality assurance and risk management for the emergency department, was assistant professor of emergency medicine, lectured and instructed students, served on various hospital committees and supervised staff, medical students and resident trainees.

In January 2000, she chronicled her medical experiences in an article she wrote titled “A Year in the E.R.,” which appeared in Philadelphia Magazine.

While attending law school, Dr. Dembe worked at International SOS, Inc., where she directed international medical evacuations for an organization serving multinational corporations. She supervised medical treatment for insured patients who worked and traveled internationally.

Dr. Dembe did legal work before joining Kline & Specter, including an internship with the Philadelphia law firm White and Williams, LLP and the Pennsylvania Health Law Project. She also clerked at The Beasley Firm in Philadelphia where she reviewed medical malpractice cases.

As an undergraduate, she attended Barnard College and the University of Oregon, where she earned a B.S. in general science and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her medical degree at Dartmouth Medical School in 1978 and did her residency in general surgery at Montefiore Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where she was elected chief resident.

Dr. Dembe graduated from the Temple University Beasley School of Law, where she was named an associate in the Rubin Public Interest Law Honor Society and received the Ethan Allen Doty Scholarship.

Dr. Dembe is member of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice.

To contact Carol Dembe, email her at Carol.Dembe@KlineSpecter.com