Attorney Claims Phila. Roundup Trial Schedule Has Given 'Unfair' Preference to Certain Firms
Thomas Bosworth, who started his own firm after his contentious split with Kline & Specter, requested that the court put him next in line to bring his Roundup case before a Philadelphia jury.
November 12, 2024 at 01:39 PM
4 minute read
What You Need to Know
- Ex-Kline & Specter associate Thomas Bosworth filed a petition to intervene in the Philadelphia Roundup litigation.
- Bosworth asked the court to schedule one of his cases for the next Roundup trial slot.
- Bosworth took issue with the fact that some firms have tried multiple cases before other firms have tried any.
The teams of Kline & Specter and Arnold & Itkin have been a force to be reckoned with in the Philadelphia Roundup litigation.
Together the two firms have represented plaintiffs in nearly half of the cases to go to trial in the mass tort and have been behind the highest Roundup verdicts to come out of the city so far.
But former Kline & Specter associate Thomas Bosworth contends it is time for other attorneys in the litigation to get a shot at trial.
Bosworth, who started his own firm after his contentious split with Kline & Specter, requested in a Nov. 8 petition that the court put him next in line to bring his Roundup case before a Philadelphia jury.
“Despite there being over 200 Roundup cases pending in this court,” Bosworth asserted, “all of the Roundup cases selected for trial thus far have been tried by a handful of plaintiffs’ lawyers, some of whom have tried two cases before other law firms—including undersigned counsel—have had the opportunity to try any of their clients’ cases.”
Six Philadelphia Roundup cases have gone to verdict since trials began a little over a year ago, and a seventh trial is on track to close in the next week or so.
Of those seven cases, the team of Philadelphia’s Kline & Specter and Houston-based Arnold & Itkin has led the plaintiffs team in three. Other Texas personal injury firms have worked with Feldman & Pinto to helm the four remaining trials: Williams Hart & Boundas and Kirkendall Dwyer each tried one case, and Clark, Love & Hutson is currently trying its second.
According to Feldman Pinto’s Rosemary Pinto—who serves as co-liaison counsel for the Philadelphia Roundup plaintiffs alongside Kline & Specter’s Thomas Kline—three Roundup cases that have completed case-specific discovery are set to be scheduled for the next round of trials.
“This schedule, as well as any future trial settings, are squarely within the province of Judge Roberts,” Pinto said in an email, referring to the head of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas’ Complex Litigation Center, Judge Joshua Roberts. Pinto did not respond to additional questions about what specific cases were marked for trial.
The court had assigned the first six trial slots by law firm in a February 2023 case management order and added the seventh trial in a later order.
Bosworth contended in his Nov. 8 filing that during the scheduling process he struggled to obtain information from plaintiffs liaison counsel about how cases were being selected for trial. Bosworth asserted that he eventually sent a letter to Pinto expressing concerns that “plaintiffs’ liaison counsel were not truly alternating between all lawyers and law firms but, rather, certain lawyers and law firms’ cases were being given unfair/recycled preference.”
Bosworth claimed plaintiffs liaison counsel did not adequately answer his inquiries about future case scheduling, prompting him to seek court intervention in the form of his Nov. 8 petition to intervene. The petition asks the court to allow Bosworth to attend a Tuesday afternoon Roundup status conference and to schedule his first-filed Roundup case for the mass tort’s next trial slot.
As of Tuesday morning, the court had not yet ruled on his petition.
“When you're not in the liaison group, you rely on them to situate your client’s case for trial in a fair way,” Bosworth said in an interview. “I just want my clients to be treated the same way as everyone else's clients,” he contended.
Bosworth said he currently has two cases in the Roundup mass tort, as well as a handful of other cases that have not yet been filed. He said he does not know if other law firms have expressed concerns with the way trials have been scheduled in the litigation.
A spokesperson for Monsanto, the primary defendant in the mass tort, declined to comment.
Kline & Specter has played a significant role in shaping the Philadelphia Roundup litigation, and Bosworth’s assertions of unfairness in trial scheduling come at a time when tensions are flaring between him and his former firm.
Bosworth filed his petition three days after Kline & Specter accused him of failing to comply with an August settlement that had been meant to resolve the sprawling legal dispute between him and the firm.
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Related Stories
View AllYou Might Like
View AllPa. High Court to Weigh Parent Company's Liability for Dissolved Subsidiary's Conduct
3 minute read‘What’s Up With Morgan & Morgan?’ Law, Advertising and a Calculated Rise
10 minute readThe 'Next Battleground' in Chapter 11: Third Circuit Set to Weigh Opt-Out Releases
5 minute readTrending Stories
- 1'No Finer Work': New York City Council Confirms Next Corporation Counsel
- 2Here’s What Litigators Want For Christmas
- 3Reported Refusal to Officiate Gay Wedding Prompts Review by NY Judicial Misconduct Watchdog
- 4Frozen-Potato Producers Face Profiteering Allegations in Surge of Antitrust Class Actions
- 5CooperSurgical Class Action Survives Motion to Dismiss
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250