Michael A. Trunk - Philadelphia, PA

Overview

Michael A. Trunk joined Kline & Specter in 2006 after successfully representing both plaintiffs and defendants at one of the country’s largest firms. In just several years he has won a number of major cases on behalf of catastrophically injured clients.

Most recently, Trunk was lead counsel in a case that resulted in a settlement of $11.9 million for a girl left brain damaged after she suffered an asthma attack caused by mold in a government-subsidized house. The Philadelphia Housing Authority, through its insurance carrier, paid the bulk of the settlement in the civil rights case for approving the home and then delaying the family’s move to a safe location. Trunk, who worked on the case for more than three years, reached the settlement on May 3, 2010, the day the trial was to begin in federal court. (See news coverage.)

Also in May 2010, Trunk and Tom Kline won a $3.75 million settlement paid by a toy manufacturer and others for a 10-year-old girl who was blinded in one eye after being struck by a “Toypedo” swimming pool toy. The plaintiffs claimed that the toy, made of a hard plastic and able to travel up to 40 feet underwater, posed a danger to children.

In a case that drew national attention, Trunk, with Shanin Specter, in November 2009 won a $7.5 million settlement against La Salle University on behalf of a former football player who suffered profound brain injury after being allowed to play in a game before a prior concussion had fully resolved. (See The Plevretes Case)

Also in 2009, Trunk was co-counsel in a case that resulted in a $7.3 million settlement on behalf of a seriously injured worker at a construction site. In that case, the worker was rendered a paraplegic after falling 20 feet from negligently constructed scaffolding.

Trunk also focuses his legal practice on product liability and medical malpractice. His work in those areas includes representing children severely injured by dangerous toys as well as medical malpractice cases involving babies who were brain damaged during birth.

At the Dechert Law Firm, where he practiced for seven years prior to joining Kline & Specter, Trunk was lead counsel in a case in which he represented a man who suffered nerve damage after he was beaten by a bouncer at a city tavern. The jury returned a verdict of $688,500 for the plaintiff. In another trial, he was lead plaintiff’s counsel in a civil rights case in which a prison inmate filed a lawsuit alleging he was beaten by a prison guard. Trunk argued the case ultimately before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Trunk also was co-counsel in successfully mediating 175 cases in federal court in New Jersey on behalf of a manufacturer of ephedra, the herbal supplement and stimulant that was withdrawn from the market due to potential heart problems.

Trunk also had a stellar academic career. He received his bachelor’s degree from Temple University, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. He graduated from the Temple University School of Law in 1999, where he was a member of the Temple Law Review and attained the highest grade-point average in his graduating class. Trunk also received a master’s of law in trial advocacy from the Temple University School of Law in 2008.

He has lectured on “Medical Monitoring Claims Under Pennsylvania Law” for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute’s forum Hot Topics in Products Liability.

Trunk is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is admitted to practice before the federal district courts in both states as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

He is a member of the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania bar associations, the American Association for Justice, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association.