Alan Feldman

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Alan M. Feldman (born 1951) is an American lawyer known for cases involving auto defect and crashworthiness claims, car and truck accidents, product liability, construction and workplace accidents and class actions. He has litigated cases involving products that caused serious injury or death to young children, including cases involving IKEA furniture, Infantino baby slings and magnetic toys.

Early life and education

Feldman grew up in a West Philadelphia row home before moving to the Wynnefield section of the city as a child. He graduated from Temple University magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1973 and from Temple University School of Law cum laude in 1976. While a law student, he paid his tuition and supported himself by launching, with his brother, a process-serving and legal-filing business known as AMF Associates.

Legal career

From 1976 to 1977, Feldman clerked for the Honorable Stanley M. Greenberg of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. In 1977, he joined the firm then known as Raynes, McCarty and Binder. While there, he handled wrongful death and cases involving serious and permanent injury. In 1987, Feldman, along with Carol Nelson Shepherd and Ezra Wohlgelernter, started the firm known today as Feldman, Shepherd, Wohlgelernter, Tanner, Weinstock & Dodig LLP, located in Philadelphia, where Feldman serves as co-managing shareholder.

Feldman's case results include:

• In June 2018, with two other law firms, a settlement of $160 million in a case against U-Haul for a deadly food truck explosion caused by U-Haul’s refilling of a propane cylinder that lacked essential safety devices and was not legally qualified for use. Feldman’s clients received the largest wrongful death settlement in Pennsylvania state court history;
• In December 2016, a recovery of $50 million against IKEA for the deaths of three toddlers who were killed in separate instances by MALM dresser tip-overs;
• In June 2013, an $8 million settlement in a case against Infantino for an infant who suffocated in a baby sling;
• In September 2015, a $7.25 million settlement in another case against Infantino for the family of an infant who died in a baby sling;
• In June 2012, $26.1 million in a case involving a fatal tractor-trailer/auto accident;
• In June 2008, a $6.3 million class action verdict in New Jersey against Kia Motors, Inc., for a defect in the braking system of the Kia Sephia;
• In January 2011, $18.3 million in a case against the manufacturer of a portable electric heater that caused a house fire in a Philadelphia row house, resulting in two fatalities and one catastrophically injured infant;
• In November 2003, a $2.5 million class action recovery for patients treated and prescribed drugs by a phony psychiatrist; and
• In July 2000, a $1 million verdict against the Tropicana casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, for refusal to pay a $1 million jackpot.

IKEA litigation

As part of the December 2016 $50 million settlement in the MALM dresser tip-over litigation, IKEA agreed to only sell chests and dressers in the United States that meet or exceed the performance requirements of ASTM F2057-14, the national voluntary safety standard for clothing storage units. IKEA also agreed to increase funding for its “Secure It” program to raise awareness of the risk of tip-overs. IKEA also agreed to make $50,000 contributions in memory of the three child victims to pediatric hospitals in the cities where they lived.

On June 18, 2018, Feldman filed another lawsuit against IKEA in its American corporate home in Pennsylvania, on behalf of a two-year-old California toddler who was fatally injured after an IKEA MALM three-drawer dresser fell on top of him.

Awards and recognition

Feldman has been ranked every year since 2010 as one of the Top 10 Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania by Thomson Reuters, and has been the number 2 Super Lawyer in Pennsylvania every year since 2016. He has also been named a Top 100 Super Lawyer in Philadelphia every year since 2007, and has been regularly selected for inclusion among the Best Lawyers in America by U.S. News & World Report. He is certified as a Civil Trial Specialist by the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and he is also a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, whose membership is limited to 500 lawyers in the United States. In 2017, Feldman received the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association’s 38th annual Justice Michael A. Musmanno Award, the highest honor bestowed upon any Philadelphia trial lawyer.

Speaking engagements and teaching

Feldman has lectured by invitation for a number of professional associations and additionally speaks at continuing legal education programs produced by Feldman Shepherd to educate attorneys throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.

Public service

In 2006, Feldman was elected to serve as Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, a professional organization of 13,000 Philadelphia lawyers and judges. During his tenure, he founded the “Raising the Bar” program, which encourages Philadelphia law firms to commit to donating $300 per attorney to support legal services for the indigent. In its first year, the program raised more than $1 million.

As Chancellor, Feldman also spearheaded an initiative to persuade the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to allow attorneys to fulfill part of their annual continuing legal education requirements by providing pro bono legal services in civil cases. In May 2018, the Court approved a pilot program that grew out of work performed by the task force that Feldman established to analyze the concept.

Feldman also served as President of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association from 1995 to 1996.

In 2014, Feldman was appointed by the Supreme Court to the Pennsylvania IOLTA Board, whose mission is to support the provision of legal services to the poor and disadvantaged. He presently serves as Vice Chair of the Board. He is also a longtime member of the Leadership Council of Community Legal Services of Philadelphia.

Family life

Feldman is married to Dr. Maureen Pelta, an art historian and full professor at Moore College of Art and Design. They have two adult daughters.

References

This article "Alan Feldman" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Alan Feldman. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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