Michael Cavaliere

Michael A. Cavaliere joined Kline & Specter in 2017 and has focused his legal career on claims involving medical malpractice, and other catastrophic personal injury cases. Now a partner, Cavaliere has achieved a string of significant results for catastrophically injured medical malpractice victims and their families through his time at the firm.

In his time at the firm, Cavaliere has been lead counsel in cases with recoveries in excess of $80 million. These include individual settlements of $22 million, $12.5 million, and more than a dozen additional settlements ranging from $1.5 million to $6 million on behalf of injured clients and their families. Cavaliere has also been co-counsel in cases with additional recoveries greatly exceeding $125 million.

Cavaliere achieved a $5.25 million settlement for the family of a man who was stabbed and killed in his home. The assailant was a minor with severe mental health issues who had been admitted twice to a children’s psychiatric hospital with homicidal thoughts but was discharged just three days before the attack. Even though claims against mental health providers are thought to be notoriously difficult, Cavaliere was able to achieve this significant settlement for the surviving wife and three children.

Cavaliere has also been lead counsel in multiple trials resulting in plaintiff verdicts in complex medical malpractice actions. In June 2024, Cavaliere achieved a six-figure plaintiff's verdict on behalf of an elderly woman who suffered an injury to her ureter during a general surgical procedure. Even though a recognized complication of surgery, Cavaliere was able to convince the jury the surgeon dissected more than was needed and unnecessarily caused injury. Cavaliere also obtained a mid-six figure verdict in September 2024 involving a man with severe kidney disease who died after what should have been a routine procedure. Cavaliere proved that a medication error involving blood-thinning medication caused the patient to bleed to death.

In March 2022, Cavaliere was lead counsel in a trial that resulted in a nearly $850,000 jury verdict on behalf of a 42-year-old Philadelphia man who died at Aria Torresdale Hospital. The patient suffered a fall and arrived at the hospital in hemorrhagic shock with bleeding into his stomach and abdomen. He was admitted, but never had surgery and died nearly two days later, suffering a cardiac arrest with an autopsy showing the cause of death as a perforated ulcer.

Cavaliere was co-counsel in litigation that produced a $3.38 million verdict in 2019 in the case of a 21-month-old girl who died due to a strangulated hernia involving her small intestine after staff at Einstein Medical Center in Elkins Park failed to properly diagnose and treat her or transfer the child to a hospital with pediatric care. The verdict concluded a two-week trial during which it was proved to the jury that in addition to medical mistakes, medical records had been altered to conceal symptoms of the child’s illness. (Read article)

Cavaliere was designated by the independent attorney group Super Lawyers* as a 2022 Rising Star in Pennsylvania, a designation reserved for the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state who are 40 or younger or practicing 10 years or less.

In one of his first cases at Kline & Specter, Cavaliere was co-counsel in litigation against a private prison company that produced a $7 million settlement plus significant policy changes at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, Pa., where a mentally ill inmate committed suicide after being placed in solitary confinement for 52 straight days. (See news coverage) 

In 2018, Cavaliere was co-counsel in a case that resulted in a $4 million settlement for an autistic resident at a Philadelphia area treatment facility. A staff member there failed to report the crime for more than an hour and a half after witnessing a fellow employee rape the woman, who had the mental capacity of a five year old. The rapist was eventually arrested, convicted and sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison.

Before joining the firm, Cavaliere worked most of four years for a Philadelphia-based defense firm where he handled complex matters defending some of the largest hospitals and health systems in the Philadelphia area. He gained a keen perspective and advantage litigating medical malpractice cases from the "other side."

Cavaliere gained broad legal experience – both civil and criminal – with positions as a law clerk and a variety of internships. Prior to his law firm work, he was a law clerk working for New Jersey Superior Court judges in Mercer County, including Douglas H. Hurd (presiding judge of the court’s Civil Division), Darlene J. Pereksta and Anthony M. Massi. Cavaliere performed extensive legal research and writing on matters such as medical malpractice, personal injury and civil rights.

Cavaliere also held three internships while attending law school: with the law firm Spector Gadon and Rosen, PC, the Civil Rights Unit of the City of Philadelphia Law Department, and Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.

Cavaliere was a top student both as an undergraduate and in law school. He earned his law degree from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude and ranked fourth in a class of 144. He was also a member of Kline Law’s Moot Court Board, and participated in national competitions in Washington, D.C. and Boston.

Cavaliere also received graduation honors for his participation in the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project during which he volunteered to teach weekly courses on constitutional law and oral advocacy at a South Philadelphia high school. He coached one young woman into the final rounds of the program’s national moot court competition.

Cavaliere earned his undergraduate degree from Temple University, where he graduated magna cum laude.

He is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is a member of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey bar associations.

Michael Cavaliere In The News:

$7 million settlement over Delco inmate's suicide, (watch videos) WTXF, 11/10/17; CBS 3, 11/9/17 (read articles) The Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/10/17; Lehigh Valley Live, 11/10/17; WHYY News, 11/9/17

Delco prison to pay $7M to kin of inmate who took own life, Delaware County Times, 11/9/17

Admissibility of informed consent in medical malpractice cases, The Legal Intelligencer, 4/11/17

Editorial: Public deserves answers about suicides at prison, Delaware County Times, 7/16/15