An article titled “Good Person - Great Lawyer” outlining the life and career of Tom Kline and written by Penn State student Alison Kuznitz won an award in the national Hearst Journalism Awards Program for best profile writing. The article, which appeared in The Lion’s Roar online publication at Penn State, traced Kline’s early days growing up in Hazleton, Pa., where, at 10 years old, he began working at the dress factory managed by his father, Isadore. The article notes a number of cases litigated by Kline, including his legal battles with major corporations, work on behalf of the victims of medical malpractice and his representation of victims of the Amtrak 188 derailment. It largely focuses on his work at Penn State, particularly on behalf of a child abused by the former football coach Jerry Sandusky and his current representation of the family of Timothy Piazza, who died as the result of a fraternity hazing incident. At one point in the story Kline talks about his decision to quit teaching 6th grade and go to law school. “I’ve always been attracted by the ability to do good and make change,” Kline said. “In a coarse and bitter and destructive world, it is still the fiber that holds the world together. At the core is the goodness of man.” The article by Kuznitz won third place from among 114 entries from 61 schools in the Hearst Personality/Profile Writing Competition. (Read the complete article)

The news media marked the five-year anniversary of the Center City building collapse with remembrances of the tragedy that killed seven people and injured 12 others, including Mariya Plekan, a Salvation Army Thrift Store shopper who was trapped beneath the rubble for 13 hours before she was rescued. Plekan lost both legs as a result and underwent 30 surgeries. But she has put her life back together and is able today to enjoy the comfort of her close-knit family. She also is able to receive any medical or other care she needs thanks to the $95.6 million award obtained for her by her attorneys, Andy Stern and Elizabeth Crawford, who have maintained a relationship with their client to this day. The Philadelphia Inquirer lauded Stern’s work in one of the longest-ever Philadelphia trials and for taking the lead in the case against the Salvation Army. Said the newspaper: “His argument convinced the jury, which found that the charity bore 75 percent of the liability to the victims …” The Inquirer noted that the first thing Plekan did with the money was to leave a nursing home and buy a new house with larger rooms and hallways. She also has room for a nurse and her daughter and son-in-law and their two children. In her first interview since the tragedy, the woman who became known as the “Miracle on Market Street” seems to be finally adjusting to life outside the hospital. “I’m very happy because I’m not in the nursing home anymore,” she said. “It feels like home. I can finally relax.” (Read the article)

The latest book by Michael Smerconish, of counsel at Kline & Specter, was published recently with the title “Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right: American Life in Columns.” Published by Temple University Press, the book includes 100 of the most memorable columns written by Smerconish over the past 15 years for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News on a variety of local, state and national subjects. Each column contains an “Afterword” with updated facts on subjects and Smerconish’s present-day views. “Clowns to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right” covers the ascensions of Barack Obama and Donald Trump but also goes back to his meeting with Ronald Reagan, dinner with Fidel Castro and his exclusive pre-trial interview with Bill Cosby. But Smerconish does not forget the local angle, writing about Philadelphia culture, from Sid Mark to the Rizzo statue. As one publicity note puts it: “Smerconish’s outlook as expressed in these impassioned opinion pieces goes beyond ‘liberal’ or ‘conservative.’ His thought process continues to evolve and change, and as it does, he aims to provoke readers to do the same.” It also notes that all author proceeds from the book will benefit the Children’s Crisis Treatment Center, a Philadelphia-based, private, nonprofit agency that provides behavioral health services to children and their families.

Shanin Specter contributed to an article in the June 2018 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine titled “Informed Consent and the Role of the Treating Physician.” Specter’s role, for which he was thanked by the authors in an acknowledgement at the end of the article, was to offer critical comments on the manuscript “from the perspective of an expert in personal injury law.” The article examined a doctor’s role in obtaining patient consent before a surgical procedure, namely the recent Shinal v. Toms decision. Megan Shinal underwent a surgical procedure in 2008 that, because of a perforated artery she suffered during the operation, left her with a permanent and severe neurological injury. While her doctor, Steven Toms, conducted an initial consultation with Shinal, he left further detailed discussions to a physician assistant. A jury found for the doctor in the case and its verdict was upheld by an appellate court, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court voted 4-3 in favor of the patient. The high court ruled that a physician cannot fulfill his or her duty to obtain informed consent through an intermediary, that without a direct two-way dialogue between doctor and patient, the “physician cannot be confident that the patient comprehends” the necessary information. However, the authors of the NEJM article suggest that there should be a “middle ground,” that an assistant should be able to inform a patient and obtain consent if he or she has the training and expertise to do so and that before the actual procedure the doctor speaks to the patient to ensure that the proper discussion has indeed taken place, that all questions have been answered and that “the patient is secure with the ultimate treatment decision.” (Read the full article)        

Tom Kline introduced former President Bill Clinton and best-selling novelist James Patterson in a discussion of the duo’s highly publicized new novel titled “The President Is Missing.” The event drew a big crowd to the Free Library of Philadelphia as Clinton and Patterson offered insights into their unique literary collaboration as well as issues their novel raises about today’s world. "The President is Missing” marks the first time a president and an author have gotten together to produce a work of fiction. As their publicity notes: “The result is a powerful, one-of-a-kind thriller filled with details only a president could know, and the kind of suspense only James Patterson can deliver.” Kline praised Clinton for establishing the Clinton Foundation, which, he noted, “improves lives across the United States and around the world by working with partners to create economic opportunity, improve public health and to inspire civic engagement and service.” He mentioned that Patterson has not only sold 375 million books over his career but that he is a “tireless champion of the power of books and reading, having donated more than one million books to students and soldiers and he funds over 400 teacher education scholarships at 24 colleges and universities.” Kline praised free libraries generally as “inclusive places where anyone can go, no matter what your age or your background or your economic status.” He commented: “This is a critical time in our lives. Bringing social and equal justice to all citizens is of paramount importance.”

Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron did not spare the plaudits in her column about the transformation of the former Beneficial Bank Building at 12th and Chestnut streets into the Thomas R. Kline Institute of Trial Advocacy or, as the headline called it, “a shrine to democracy.” The Pulitzer Prize-winning writer noted: “After sitting empty for a dozen years, the handsome, white granite building has been brought back to life by Drexel’s Thomas R. Kline School of Law,” which will use the five-story structure to teach courtroom skills. It contains five classroom/courtrooms, including one with 80 seats for spectators. Saffron wrote that the renovation, overseen and funded by Tom Kline, who she described as a “crusading litigator,” and “meticulously executed” by architect Jay Tackett of Tackett & Co., has “restored its dazzling brightness.” The 100-yeard-old building designed by Horace Trumbauer also will contain an archive of articles and exhibits of Kline’s career and famous cases. “Solid, neoclassical banks like Trumbauer’s are often seen as architectural expressions of America’s democratic values,” wrote Saffron. “In its new life as a law school, the renovated bank has become more than a symbol of those beliefs. It now plays a role in defending them.” While open to the public now, work on the 20,000-square-foot institute is still ongoing and it is set to have its official grand opening in September. (read article)

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