Shanin Specter
Founding Attorney | Kline & Specter, PC
Shanin Specter is a medical malpractice, product liability and catastrophic injury trial lawyer and founding attorney at Kline & Specter, PC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. J.D., University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
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19th Floor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
Shanin Specter is a Philadelphia trial lawyer and a founding attorney of Kline & Specter, PC, where he represents people injured by medical malpractice, defective products, premises hazards and motor vehicle accidents. The firm serves clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York and nationwide.
According to the firm, Specter has obtained more than 300 jury verdicts or settlements above $1 million, including more than 75 resolutions above $10 million, 19 of them verdicts. In May 2026 he and Elizabeth Crawford won a $49.5 million federal verdict in Chicago against Boeing on behalf of one of the 157 people killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash. Boeing paid $63.96 million with prejudgment interest. The pair won the first verdict from the crash, $28.45 million, in November 2025.
Earlier work includes White v. Ford, in which Specter won verdicts of $153 million and $52 million for the family of a three-year-old boy killed when a parking brake disengaged, and a $109 million verdict for the family of a woman killed by a fallen electric line. The firm describes that verdict as the largest contested liability personal injury verdict in Pennsylvania history; the case settled for $105 million. Several of his cases led to safety changes, including a new Electric Safety Division at the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and a Philadelphia ordinance requiring regular inspection of fire escapes.
Specter earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an LL.M. with First Honors from Cambridge University. He opened Kline & Specter with Tom Kline in 1995. He is a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates and the American Law Institute, received the Michael A. Musmanno Award from the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the Milton D. Rosenberg Award from the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and won The Legal Intelligencer’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
Experience and Expertise
Qualifications
Timeline
- J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School
- LL.M. with First Honors, University of Cambridge
- Co-founded Kline & Specter with Tom Kline (1995)
Practice Areas
- Inner Circle of Advocates
- American Law Institute
- Michael A. Musmanno Award, Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association
- Milton D. Rosenberg Award, Pennsylvania Association for Justice
- Philadelphia Product Liability Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America (2016)
- Lifetime Achievement Award, The Legal Intelligencer (2016)
- Top ten litigators in Pennsylvania, The National Law Journal
- $49.5 Million Verdict: Federal jury verdict in Chicago against Boeing in May 2026, won with Elizabeth Crawford for one of the 157 victims of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash. Boeing paid $63.96 million with prejudgment interest.
- $28.45 Million Verdict: First verdict arising from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash, won with Elizabeth Crawford in November 2025. With prejudgment interest the total recovery is $35.85 million.
- $153 Million Verdict: White v. Ford. Wrongful death verdict for the family of a three-year-old boy run over when the parking brake in his father's F-350 disengaged.
- $52 Million Verdict: Punitive damages retrial of White v. Ford in Reno, Nevada, in 2004. The case settled in 2008.
- $109 Million Verdict: Verdict for the family of Carrie Goretzka, killed by a fallen electric line. The case settled for $105 million.
- $57 Million Verdict: 2007 verdict for a young man catastrophically injured at a Pennsylvania hospital during birth. The case settled on a high-low basis for $23 million.
- $49.6 Million Verdict: Medical malpractice verdict in 2000 for David Caruso, a 20-year-old left in a near-vegetative state after negligent hospital care.
- $35 Million Settlement: 2008 settlement with 16 defendants in the Bridgeport Fire class action for more than 100 businesses and individuals.
- $30 Million Settlement: 2006 settlement during trial for a 14-year-old left quadriplegic by a rear center seat lap belt in a head-on collision.
- $24.25 Million Verdict: 1995 verdict in Weightman v. National Realty Corp. for a girl brain damaged in a swimming pool accident.
- $20 Million Verdict: 2003 compensatory verdict for Hugh Gallagher IV, catastrophically injured when nurses failed to respond to his blocked airway. The verdict was upheld on appeal.
- $20 Million Verdict: Lee v. Abington Memorial Hospital (2006), tried with Don Matusow, for a newborn left blind by an untreated eye condition.
- $19.9 Million Verdict: Sparber v. DuPont, a Delaware-record verdict against a hospital for a 15-year-old catastrophically injured in an attack by a visitor.
- $19.1 Million Verdict: 2004 verdict for Teresa McManamon, a Hazleton woman struck by a careless driver while working as a flagger at a construction site.
- $12.25 Million Recovery: 2004 verdict for Nicholas Woolfolk, a two-year-old who fell from a window after a screen popped out. Under a pre-verdict agreement the child received $12.25 million.
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