Enter legal issue and location
Shanin Specter - Philadelphia, PA
1525 Locust StreetFloor 19 Philadelphia, PA 19102- 3719
Kline & Specter PC
Philadelphia Medical Malpractice Lawyer
Overview
In 1937, Harry Specter, a peddler, was driving his Chevy pickup when a defective spindle bolt broke and caused the truck to flip over. His arm was crushed in the accident and he was left permanently disabled.
Harry got a $500 settlement for his injury. More than six decades later, his grandson, Shanin Specter, a nationally recognized trial attorney, would sue a major car company -- also over a manufacturing defect in a pick-up truck - with a far different result...
In 1937, Harry Specter, a peddler, was driving his Chevy pickup when a defective spindle bolt broke and caused the truck to flip over. His arm was crushed in the accident and he was left permanently disabled.
Harry got a $500 settlement for his injury. More than six decades later, his grandson, Shanin Specter, a nationally recognized trial attorney, would sue a major car company -- also over a manufacturing defect in a pick-up truck - with a far different result...
In 1937, Harry Specter, a peddler, was driving his Chevy pickup when a defective spindle bolt broke and caused the truck to flip over. His arm was crushed in the accident and he was left permanently disabled.
Harry got a $500 settlement for his injury. More than six decades later, his grandson, Shanin Specter, a nationally recognized trial attorney, would sue a major car company -- also over a manufacturing defect in a pick-up truck - with a far different result.
Specter waged an epic battle against the Ford Motor Co. on behalf of the family of Walter White, a three-year-old boy who was run over and killed when the parking brake in his father's F-350 spontaneously disengaged. Specter has won two verdicts in White v. Ford -- for $153 million and $52 million -- and continued to litigate this case, which was settled weeks prior to its scheduled third trial in June 2008.
Shanin Specter has obtained more than 100 verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million, including nine which were in eight or nine figures. Of those, four were medical malpractice cases, two involved a defective product, two arose from improperly maintained premises and one resulted from a motor vehicle accident. (See below.)
Specter, who earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and an LL.M. withFirst Honors from Cambridge University, has compiled a lengthy record of professional accomplishments. In 2010 he was selected as a member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, a group of the best 100 trial lawyers in the country.
Specter received the 2008 Michael A. Musmanno Award, the highest honor conferred by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyer's Association. In 2007 he received the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association's (now the Pennsylvania Association for Justice) highest honor, the Milton D. Rosenberg Award "in recognition of those qualities of leadership, service and devotion to the Association's cause." The National Law Journal selected Specter as one of the top ten litigators in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, while other organizations have named him as among the best attorneys in the state and in the nation.
Specter has won a litany of major cases, including a nationally publicized $7.5 million settlement against La Salle University for a football player who suffered a concussion in practice and was prematurely cleared to play and later sustained a severe brain damage in a game. (See The Plevretes Case)
In 1995, six months after opening the firm with partner Tom Kline, he won a $24.25 million jury verdict for a little girl left severely brain damaged in a swimming pool accident. (See Weightman v. National Realty Corp.) At the time, it was the largest compensatory verdict ever awarded in Pennsylvania. Two years later, in Sparber v. DuPont, Specter won a Delaware-record $19.9 million verdict against a hospital after a 15-year-old patient was accosted by a visitor, the attack resulting in catastrophic nerve damage. In 1998 Specter won a $6.8 million verdict for a man injured in a motorcycle accident while wearing a defective helmet. (See Wandel v. Bell Sports, Inc.)
Specter, known for his tenacity and an impeccable attention to detail, has set records in other medical-malpractice cases. In 2000, he won the then-largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania history for David Caruso, a 20-year-old who was left in a near-vegetative state after receiving negligent care at a Philadelphia hospital. Specter demonstrated his ability to captivate a courtroom in that case, giving a closing speech in which he spoke for Caruso in the first-person, as if he were the young man who would never be able to again enjoy life's simple pleasures. Many in the courtroom were moved to tears, including members of the jury, which awarded $49.6 million.
Among his most well known cases, Specter in 2001 won an unusually large settlement in a suit involving a defective BB gun that badly brain damaged and led to the death of a teenage boy. The Mahoney case, and Specter's investigation of the gun, resulted in an expose on the ABC program 20/20 featuring Specter and led the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to seek the recall of 7.4 million defective Daisy BB guns.
In another case, this one involving the death of a pedestrian run down by a speeding Philadelphia police car, Specter won not only monetary compensation for his client but also important reform for Philadelphia citizens. The Gillyard/Rich case resulted in a $2.45 million settlement against the city under the Civil Rights Act, sparking the police commissioner to mandate extensive training and make driving rule changes to improve police and civilian safety.
About Shanin Specter
Practice Areas
- Medical Malpractice
- Premises Liability
- Product Liability
- Automobile Liability
Litigation
- 100%
Current Employment Position(s)
- Managing Partner
Qualifications
Bar Admissions
- Pennsylvania, 1984
- U.S. Court of Appeals 3rd Circuit, 1984
- U.S. Federal Courts, 1984
- U.S. Supreme Court
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court Middle District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court Western District of Pennsylvania
- Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Other Affiliations
- The Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, - Present (Member, Hearing Committee)
- Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, - Present (Member, Board of Governors)
- Pennsylvania Bar Association, - Present (Member, House of Delegates)
Education
- Harvard University Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
LL.M.
Honors: With First Honors - University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1984
J.D. - Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania, 1980
B.A.
Honors: With Honors
Honors: Harry S Truman Scholarship Award
Major: Political Science
Achievements
Other Sources of Feedback About Shanin Specter
Included on the 2023 Pennsylvania list
Past Lists
- 2022 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2021 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2020 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2019 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2018 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2017 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2016 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2015 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2014 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2013 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2012 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2011 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2010 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2009 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2008 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2007 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2006 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2005 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
- 2004 Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list
Office Information
Address
1525 Locust StreetFloor 19 Philadelphia, PA 19102- 3719
Phone
Fax
- (215) 772-1359
Accepts Credit Cards
Yes
Websites
When viewing a listing, consider the state advertising restrictions to which lawyers and law firms must adhere, as well as our FindLaw.com Legal Directory disclaimer. Some lawyers publish comparative information regarding the services that they provide which may be subject to specific comparative communications restrictions.
Write Your Review
Fields marked with an * are required
Call us at 215-253-3211
Firm Address
