Trial Lawyer Resource Center

Tom Kline

Thomas R. Kline has forged an incomparable record of courtroom victories, in three decades of practicing personal injury law -- some with remarkable results against seemingly incredible odds. As a result he has received a litany of accolades and recognition, including his August 2005 election as vice 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 is slated to ascend to the presidency of the organization in 2007. He also has been honored for three consecutive years as the No. 1 attorney in Pennsylvania by Super Lawyers 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as other independent surveys that select the best lawyers in the nation, including Best Lawyers in America and Lawdragon 500.

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.

The Philadelphia Daily News summarized his career and willingness to represent the underdog 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 five-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."

Kline recently reached large settlements in cases involving a construction accident, product and premises liability and a federal tort claim. In 2004, he reached a $40.5 million settlement for six people killed and others who were injured in an explosion and fire at the Village Green apartment complex in Hatboro, Pa. In 2003, he announced a $36.4 million settlement with Motiva Enterprises for the death of a worker in an explosion at one of its oil refineries. The settlement was thought to be the largest-ever reported in the United States for a single-victim wrongful death case. In the same month, Kline won a $5 million settlement under the Federal Tort Claims Act for a woman, Natalie Cordero, who was severely burned after her car was struck by a nine-ton Postal Service truck.

In a single week in January 2004, Kline announced two more settlements in highly publicized cases. One was a $29.6 million settlement for three women, one represented by Kline, who were killed and others who were injured in the May 2000 collapse of Pier 34 on the Delaware River. The other was a $10 million agreement for the family of a kindergarten student, Jonathan Cozzolino, who was killed when a lunch table collapsed on him in the school cafeteria.

But settlements are not what made Tom Kline's reputation. It is his long string of seven- and eight-figure jury verdicts. Kline has been praised for rugged cross-examinations of defense witnesses and opening and closing speeches that enabled juries to grasp complex cases and then moved them to hand down large verdicts.

In a 1998 case, Kline delivered a memorable and moving closing speech on behalf of a client, Bonnie Welteroth, whose breast cancer was diagnosed late because of several errors. A Lehigh County jury awarded $33.1 million in the case, at the time the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history. Kline, who lost both his parents to cancer, had asked the jury to help write a fitting obituary for his client, a woman facing certain death. In another case involving a failure to diagnose cancer, a Montgomery County jury in July 2003 awarded $3 million to the family of Dagmar Lackman, 58, who died of breast cancer after a doctor misread her mammogram. The Lackman case was featured on the ABC News program Nightline.

American College of Trial Lawyers

Tom R. Kline grew up in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region, son of a dress factory manager and only the second in his family to go to college, attending Albright College in Reading, Pa. He began his professional career not as a lawyer but as a middle school teacher. He attended Lehigh University, where he earned a master's degree and completed Ph.D. course work. Kline then attended Duquesne University School of Law, where he graduated with the school's Distinguished Student Award. He went on to work as law clerk to Pennsylvania Supreme Court 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.)

International Academy of Trial Lawyers

Kline is a frequent lecturer at law schools, medical schools and continuing legal education programs. He is the producer, director, writer and performer in the acclaimed one-man show "Trial As Theatre (TM)." He is the author of "Robert C. Grier: Jacksonian Unionist" and is the author of numerous other published articles.

Kline is Regional Chairman of the Federal Judicial Nominating Commission for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Mr. Kline is listed in Best Lawyers in America and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. Mr. Kline is AV-rated in Martindale-Hubbell. He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.