Kila Baldwin, a Kline & Specter partner who recently secured a $9.7 million verdict against Thomas Jefferson University Hospital physicians, parted ways with the Philadelphia-based plaintiffs firm to start a separate practice where she plans to handle “the worst of the worst” cases in catastrophic injury litigation.

Baldwin, whose newly formed practice of Baldwin Matzus launched Tuesday, said after nearly 18 years of practicing at Kline & Specter, she sought to distinguish herself from her previous firm’s much vaunted named partners, Tom Kline and Shanin Specter.