Thomas Kline
Kline & Specter, PC
Thomas Kline is a medical malpractice, product liability and personal injury trial lawyer with Kline & Specter, PC in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Admitted in Pennsylvania and New York; J.D., Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University.
Meet Thomas
Contact
19th Floor
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
Thomas R. Kline is a Philadelphia trial lawyer at Kline & Specter, PC, where he represents people injured by medical malpractice, defective products and other negligence. He has practiced personal injury law for more than four decades and serves clients in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York and nationwide.
According to the firm, Kline won verdicts of $41 million and $80 million in vaginal mesh cases and an $8 billion punitive damages verdict in a Risperdal case against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, all in 2019. In 2023 he won a $175 million verdict in a Roundup cancer case, and in 2024 a $2.25 billion verdict in another Roundup trial. He chaired the Plaintiffs Management Committee in the Amtrak 188 multidistrict litigation, which established a $265 million settlement program.
Kline grew up in Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region and graduated from Albright College. He taught sixth grade, earned a master’s degree in American History at Lehigh University and then attended Duquesne University School of Law. He clerked for Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas W. Pomeroy, worked at The Beasley Firm and opened Kline & Specter with Shanin Specter in 1995. He is licensed in Pennsylvania and New York.
He is a past president of the Inner Circle of Advocates and a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. In 2022 he gave $50 million to Duquesne’s law school, which was renamed the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University, following an earlier gift to the law school at Drexel University.
Experience and Expertise
Qualifications
Timeline
- Albright College
- Lehigh University, master's degree in American History
- Duquesne University School of Law
- Admitted to practice in Pennsylvania
- Admitted to practice in New York
- Admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Practice Areas
- Inner Circle of Advocates (Past President)
- American College of Trial Lawyers
- International Academy of Trial Lawyers
- American Law Institute
- Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association (Board of Directors)
- Super Lawyers No. 1 attorney in Pennsylvania (2004-2026)
- Best Lawyers in America (1995-present)
- Best Lawyers 2019 Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year
- Best of the Bar, Philadelphia Business Journal (2020)
- Michael A. Musmanno Award, Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association (2016)
- National Law Journal Winning Hall of Fame
- Lifetime Achievement Award, The Legal Intelligencer
- Distinguished Alumni Award, Duquesne University (2008)
- Power 100, Philadelphia Business Journal (2018)
- Life Without Limits Award, United Cerebral Palsy of Philadelphia and Vicinity (2014)
- $8 Billion Verdict: 2019 punitive damages verdict in Philadelphia against Johnson & Johnson and Janssen Pharmaceuticals in a Risperdal case; the firm describes it as the largest verdict of his career.
- $2.25 Billion Verdict: January 2024 verdict against Monsanto in a Roundup cancer trial, including $250 million in compensatory and $2 billion in punitive damages.
- $265 Million Settlement Program: Chair of the Plaintiffs Management Committee in the Amtrak 188 multidistrict litigation, which established the program for injured passengers and families of those who died.
- $175 Million Verdict: 2023 verdict against Monsanto, including $150 million in punitive damages, in the first Roundup bellwether in the Philadelphia mass tort program.
- $80 Million Verdict: May 2019 verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a vaginal mesh case, including $30 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive damages.
- $51 Million Verdict: Hall v. SEPTA, a 1999 case involving a four-year-old boy whose foot was torn off in a subway escalator.
- $42.9 Million Verdict: 2013 verdict for a child born with cerebral palsy after substandard medical treatment at a Philadelphia hospital.
- $41 Million Verdict: Verdict in a vaginal mesh case against Ethicon Inc., including $25 million in punitive damages.
- $40.5 Million Settlement: Settlement for six people killed and others injured in the Village Green apartment complex explosion and fire in Hatboro, Pennsylvania.
- $36.4 Million Settlement: Motiva Enterprises settlement for the death of a worker in an oil refinery explosion.
- $33.1 Million Verdict: Welteroth v. Spectrascan, a Lehigh County verdict for the estate of a woman diagnosed late with breast cancer.
- $29.6 Million Settlement: Settlement for three women killed and others injured in the Pier 34 collapse on the Delaware River; Kline was co-lead counsel.
- $18.5 Million Verdict: Keen case verdict for a 12-year-old girl who suffered heart damage due to a medical error.
- $15.2 Million Award: Sears case award for a child who suffered brain injury during heart surgery.
- $14 Million Verdict: Verdict for Ashley Zauflik, whose leg was amputated after she was run over by a school bus; the firm describes it as reportedly the largest in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
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