I started practicing law in 2006 at one of the preeminent personal injury firms in Philadelphia, handling cases from beginning to end in a variety of fields, including wrongful death, medical malpractice, product liability, defamation, and business disputes. I was lead counsel in all aspects of civil litigation, including pleadings, motions, depositions, bench & jury trials, appeals, and even defendants declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying. While there, I drafted from scratch the original LexisNexis Practice Guide: Pennsylvania Civil Discovery. There were plenty of jury trials, including some that produced multi-million-dollar verdicts.

In 2015, I left to start my own firm with a colleague and focus more specifically on catastrophic injury and mass torts, particular pharmaceutical and medical device cases. (Here’s a story in The Legal Intelligencer about my move.) In the mass torts realm, I was appointed by federal courts to the leadership of three nationwide cases, MDLs 2452 (SDCA), 2767 (SDNY), and 2848 (EDPA). I was invited to speak at GMU’s Law & Economics Center, the ABA’s Environmental & Energy Litigation Group, and on WHYY, and I was quoted by Bloomberg, Law360, PBS, Washington Post, etc. The firm was listed in Super Lawyers and U.S. News Best Law Firms every year it existed.

It was good, but it was a lot. A lot of travel, a lot of time in airports, hotels, conference rooms, and courtrooms instead of with my kids. I once went to Finland in the dead of winter to depose a pharmacoepidemiologist. COVID put the brakes on the pace. Like a lot of people, I reevaluated what I was doing, and decided I wanted more time home with my kids before they went off to college. So I changed gears and became a solo practitioner.

I’m still at heart a litigator and I keep a limited docket of cases. I also provide strategic counseling to small and mid-sized businesses, typically regarding litigation but also more generally risk, including regulatory risk. (References from business clients available upon request.) I’m politically active; if you can’t place why you recognize my name, it’s probably from that world, via social media and the like.

Experience as Lead Counsel, by Court:

• Federal Courts of Appeal for the Second, Third, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits
• Federal District Courts in CA, DE, IL, LA, NJ, NY, PA, and TN
• Delaware Supreme Court, Pennsylvania Supreme, Commonwealth, and Superior Courts
• State trial courts in California, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

Education:

• Yale University, B.A. with Honors (2003)
• Temple University, J.D. (2006)

Legal Advice Disclaimer

I’m a licensed attorney. I provide legal advice, but only to my clients — people who have a written agreement with me. I don’t provide legal advice through this site.

The discussions you see here — or anywhere else — aren’t any different from reading a newspaper or magazine article by a lawyer or watching a lawyer on a television show talk about a case. I might write about a legal issue relevant to your situation, but professional legal advice requires an in-depth discussion with you about your case, a thorough investigation into all the relevant facts, and substantial research into the relevant laws.


This Website’s Copyright

Litigation and Trial is the copyrighted work of Max Kennerly, all rights reserved. You may quote portions of writings in a manner consistent with fair use and with attribution, accompanied by a followed link back to the source URL of the writing. I’m usually quite happy to share pieces in full with attribution, just ask in advance. Thanks.



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