Shanin Specter
The Irving Segal Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law
Shanin Specter is a preeminent American trial lawyer. He is a founding partner of Kline & Specter, one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the United States.
Specter has obtained more than 200 jury verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million and more than 50 case resolutions greater than $10 million, including jury verdicts of $153 million against a major automaker and $109 million against a Pennsylvania power company. In all, he has achieved 16 eight- or nine-figure verdicts, among them news-making cases involving medical malpractice, defective products, medical devices, premises liability, auto accidents and general negligence.
Beyond winning substantial monetary compensation for his clients, many of Specter’s cases have prompted changes that provide a societal benefit, including improvements to vehicle safety, nursing and hospital procedures, the safe operation of police cars, training for the use of CPR at public institutions, and inspections, installation and maintenance of utility power lines. One case spurred the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to create a new Electric Safety Division to investigate reported electrical injuries. Specter’s lawsuit on behalf of the victims of a fire escape collapse helped move the City of Philadelphia to enact an ordinance requiring all fire escapes to be regularly inspected.
Specter earned his undergraduate degree with honors from Haverford College, his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an LLM with First Honors from Cambridge University.
Since 2000, Specter has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Since 2015, Specter has also taught at UC Hastings College of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law and Stanford Law School.