Ruxandra “Andra” M. Laidacker, a partner at Kline & Specter, concentrates on representing the firm’s clients in the post-trial and appellate phases of litigation.

She joined the firm in 2015 after nearly a decade working in the Pennsylvania judicial system, the last five as staff attorney to former Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille.

Laidacker has briefed and argued cases in the state appellate courts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware as well as in several federal courts, notably the U.S. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Representing clients in appellate phases of litigation, Laidacker has worked to promote the rights of individual citizens by advocating for the right to trial by jury, full and just compensation for innocent victims, and for the protection of a free and independent judiciary.

Baumbach v. Lafayette College, for example, was remanded for trial, after the Superior Court recognized a college has the duty to protect the safety of its athletes. In A.Y. v. Janssen Pharm., following a $70 million verdict in favor of a young man injured by prescription medication, Laidacker defended the verdict on numerous grounds, including remittitur. In Z.F.1 v. Bethanna, she protected the compensation awarded to a child victim of abuse, where the defendant asserted immunity.

Laidacker is currently working on defending major verdicts won by both Kline & Specter – such as the $2.25 billion Round up verdict achieved in 2024 – as well as those won by outside firms, such as the $976.5 million defective seatbelt awarded in November 2023 against Mitsubishi Motors.

From 2017 until 2023, Laidacker served on the Appellate Courts Procedural Rules Committee, a 12-member group of attorneys that advises the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on matters relating to the Pennsylvania Rules of Appellate Procedure. She is an active member of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, having authored several amici briefs that were filed on behalf of the organization.

These cases notably include Mallory v. Norfolk Southern, 600 U.S.122 (2023) (general personal jurisdiction by registration); Ebert v. C.R. Bard, 26 EAP 2021 (immunity from strict liability for medical device manufacturer; case settled during pendency of appeal in Supreme Court of Pennsylvania); and Roverano v. John Crane, Inc., 226 A.3d 526 (Pa. 2020) (Fair Share Act does not require a factfinder to apportion liability on a percentage, as opposed to per capita, basis in a strict liability asbestos case).

In 2023, Laidacker received the George F. Douglas Jr. Amicus Curiae Award, an award given to a trial lawyer member in recognition outstanding accomplishments in brief writing or oral argument before Pennsylvania’s highest courts on behalf of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice.

Laidacker also writes frequently on issues of interest to the plaintiff’s bar in the Verdict newsletter of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers’ Association and the PAJ Quarterly magazine of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice. She has contributed a chapter on judicial selection to the recently published The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania: Life and Law in the Commonwealth, 1684-2017 (Hare, J. ed. 2018). She moreover is an annual contributor to the Pennsylvania Civil Pre-Trial Guide (2021-present) and the Pennsylvania Trial Practice Guide (2021-present), which are edited by the Hon. Daniel J. Anders.

Before practicing law, Laidacker was a producer with news organizations in New York and New Jersey.

She earned her undergraduate degree from the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University while also doing international coursework at Oxford University. Laidacker earned her J.D. from Tulane University and also studied arbitration and mediation at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.

 

Andra Laidacker In the News: