Pennsylvania Superior Court Judge Richard B. Klein Joins McElroy Deutsch

McElroy Deutsch is pleased to announce that former Pennsylvania Trial and Appellate Court Judge Richard B. Klein has joined the Firm as Of Counsel in its Litigation & Insurance Services Practice Group. Judge Klein will focus his practice on Alternative Dispute Resolution (“ADR”) and appellate and trial consulting and will be based in the Firm’s Philadelphia, PA office, serving clients nationwide.

Judge Klein entered the private sector after 36 years as a judge. He served as a trial judge in Philadelphia for 28 years and then as an appellate judge on Pennsylvania’s Superior Court for eight years. For the past decade, in addition to helping lawyers resolve cases as an arbitrator and mediator, he has consulted on appeals, including assistance on briefs and arguments. He also advised on trial strategies, served as an expert witness, and frequently conducted continuing legal education programs.

Judge Klein has been the long-time co-chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s ADR Committee and he received the Pennsylvania Bar’s highest ADR award, the Sir Francis Bacon Award. This recognition is given to an individual who excels in Alternative Dispute Resolution and has had a significant professional impact in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the area of ADR. He has also trained as a mediator at both the National Judicial College in Nevada and the American Bar Association Mediation Training for Judges in Maryland.

He is the founding chair of the Pennsylvania Bar “Plain English” Committee and presently serves as co-chair. He taught Trial Advocacy and Legal Writing at Temple Law school for 15 years and is co-author of the Thomson Reuters book, Trial Communication Skills. He received the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s “Clarity Award,” its highest award for legal writing. Judge Klein joins McElroy Deutsch’s highly regarded ADR Practice Group that includes five other former members of the judiciary: two judges from the Connecticut Supreme Court, one from the Connecticut Superior Court, one from the New Jersey Superior Court, and a judge who has served in the United States District Court in New Jersey and the United States Magistrate Court. The practice group also includes several notable attorneys, including Ronald J. Riccio, the former Dean and professor of law at the Seton Hall University School of Law.

The Firm’s ADR Practice covers more than a dozen industries on a national and international basis, handling arbitration, mediation, discovery disputes, case management, and internal investigations.  Its lawyers act as neutrals, as well as preparing and assisting clients who participate in ADR.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Amherst College, Judge Klein graduated with honors from Harvard Law School. He is the educational leader for legal-study tours sponsored by the Corporation for Professional Conferences and has led trips to Russia, China, Greece, Egypt, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Vietnam, and South Africa.