David Inscho

David K. Inscho, a partner at Kline & Specter, has worked on a wide array of civil matters at the firm, from cases involving medical malpractice, auto accidents, workplace injuries, civil rights and sexual abuse. And all had similar results — substantial verdicts and settlements.

Those legal victories led to his selection from among thousands of attorneys as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer — Rising Star (2007-2016), placing him in the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state who are 40 or younger.

In his most recent case, Inscho secured an $8 million settlement in July 2024 with Camp Woodward in a case arising from the sexual assaults of a 14-year-old gymnast by a coach at the elite gymnastics camp.

In August 2023, Inscho obtained a $3.5 million settlement in August 2023 with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in a case alleging one of its priests, the late Pastor John Close, sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy who attended religious classes at St. Katherine’s of Sienna, in Wayne, Pa. The assault occurred in 2006. (News coverage)

Before that case, Inscho worked with Tom Kline to obtain the largest-ever settlement against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in a child sexual abuse case. The settlement – the exact monetary amount was confidential – came for the family of a child who was the victim of years-long abuse by a serial pedophile priest at Resurrection of Our Lord Parish in Northeast Philadelphia. The victim, tormented by his experience, died of a drug overdose at the age of 26.

Inscho in 2018 obtained a $4 million settlement for an autistic woman who was raped while a 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 the rape by a fellow employee. The rapist was eventually arrested, tried and sentenced to seven to 15 years in prison. 

In another major case, Inscho in November 2017 secured a $7 million settlement with a private prison company over the suicide of a mentally ill inmate who had been held for 52 straight days in solitary confinement at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Delaware County, Pa. The prison also agreed to make significant policy changes to help avoid the same fate that befell Janene Wallace, 35, who had been mistreated by guards and denied proper medical attention and supervision. (See news coverage)

In late 2015, Inscho worked with Shanin Specter to secure a $15 million settlement against a Philadelphia area hospital for a middle-aged woman who suffered a stroke and permanent brain damage due to medical malpractice.

Inscho was lead counsel in earlier litigation that resulted in a $1.7 million jury verdict in Berks County Common Pleas Court for the family of a three-month-old girl who died after a doctor failed to diagnose a bacterial meningitis infection. (Read more)

In 2013, he was co-counsel with Tom Kline in a case that produced one of the largest verdicts for an undocumented worker, winning a $5 million award for a man crushed to death by a collapsing excavation site. (See The Arana Case)

Inscho was also co-counsel with Tom Kline in achieving a $1.8 million settlement in a case against a psychotherapist who had sexual contact with a teenage patient. The 2011 settlement included a tearful public admission and apology from the therapist in open court. (See The Thatcher Case)

In 2010, Inscho teamed with Kline in obtaining a $10.5 million settlement of a federal lawsuit in the case of a Philadelphia teenager who was strangled after being placed in a restraint hold at a Tennessee treatment center. (See Leach)

Inscho was co-counsel in a 2009 case that resulted in a $3.2 million settlement for the widower of a Wayne County woman who was killed when her car struck a piece of farming equipment that broke loose from an oncoming truck. The settlement was believed to be the largest on record in the rural northeastern Pennsylvania county. (See Curtis)

Before joining Kline & Specter, Inscho was an associate at the Dechert Law Firm, where he handled multiple proceedings such as arbitrations, municipal court hearings, discovery motions and court conferences in a range of legal cases. In one important case, a construction case involving a large-scale environmental remediation project, he was solely responsible for all aspects of the litigation.

Prior to joining Dechert, he worked for two years as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Clarence C. Newcomer, a celebrated jurist who sat on the federal bench for more than three decades in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Inscho had a distinguished academic career that included top honors in a number of areas, including an award for his oratory skills as a member of the national champion Temple University mock trial team. And he achieved the highest score on the July 2002 Pennsylvania bar exam, an exam taken by 1,957 law school graduates across the state.

Inscho graduated magna cum laude from the Temple University Beasley School of Law, where he was the recipient of the West Publishing Award given to the top five students in the graduating class. He worked as a research assistant for Professor William Woodward, Jr. while at Temple Law.

Inscho also was a member of the law school’s renowned mock trial team, which competes in different cities throughout the country. His team won first place in the National Championship Mock Trial Tournament sponsored by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a contest in which Inscho was chosen as the Cathy Bennett Award winner for best overall advocate. In later years, Inscho went on to coach mock trial teams at the Drexel University Law School, where in 2011 his team won a Regional Championship trophy in the National Trial Competition, considered the toughest and most prestigious in the country.

While a student at Temple, Inscho also won the TASLA award given to the top student in the field of evidence and further recognition for Outstanding Oral Advocacy in Legal Research Writing in both the criminal and civil fields. He was the Note and Comment editor of the Temple Law Review and a member of the Justinian Society, the Italian-American law society.

Inscho earned his undergraduate degree, a bachelor’s in government and economics, at Franklin and Marshall College, where he won recognition as a Presidential Scholar and was awarded the Lanious B. Keiper Award for academic achievement. At F & M he also served as treasurer and rush chairman of Delta Sigma Phi fraternity.

Inscho is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and before the federal court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey. 

He is a member of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, the Pennsylvania Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

David Inscho In The News:

Kline & Specter files suit in sexual assault of preschool children, CBS 3 News, 11/27/18; The Philadelphia Daily News, 11/27/18

David Inscho Interviewed On Clergy Abuse Grand Jury Report, BBC Radio 4, 8/14/18

Dave Inscho interviewed on clergy abuse grand jury report, MSNBC 8/15/18

Inscho comments on grand jury report in clergy sex abuse scandal, NBC 10, 7/9/18; Telemundo 62, 7/9/18

Sex-abuse victim asks Supreme Court to release grand jury report, Metro, 7/9/18

In largest reported payout yet, Philadelphia Archdiocese settles abuse lawsuit, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 6/25/18

$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

Kline & Specter, David Incho file suit in The family of a girl who was sexually abused at Gwynedd-Mercy Academy Elementary, Lower Gwynedd Patch, 3/2/18

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