Nadeem A. Bezar

Nadeem A. Bezar, a partner at Kline & Specter, is an accomplished and skilled attorney who has won scores of million-dollar-plus verdicts and settlements while also serving as an active member of the legal and educational communities.  Bezar joined the firm after gaining more than 20 years experience with another Philadelphia firm at which he was a name partner-- Kolsby, Gordon, Robin, Shore & Bezar. His practice concentrates on medical negligence, catastrophic personal injury, and cases involving child abuse and human trafficking, sexual assault and Title IX violations on college and university campuses.  While known for his expertise in the courtroom, Bezar also has built a reputation for the genuine empathy he holds for his clients. Because of his record, Bezar has become the region’s preeminent legal expert in matters concerning child and sexual abuse, including infractions by foster services, placement agencies and area institutions.  Bezar is renowned for giving a voice to children abused in the foster care system who have no one else to speak on their behalf.  Bezar also handles severe and often tragic medical malpractice cases, obtaining high verdicts for his clients.

Bezar in March 2017 filed the first civil lawsuit under Pennsylvania’s 2014 human trafficking statute against a Philadelphia motel owner and operator on behalf of a teenage girl who was enslaved and forced to perform sexual acts with men over a nearly two-year period. His representation of a 10-year-old foster child, Ethan Okula, who died of an intestinal blockage also brought recent media attention. In late 2016, Bezar won a $5.35 million jury verdict against Presbyterian Children’s Village for twice placing a young girl in the home of a temporary foster family where she was sexually molested. The male foster parent pleaded guilty to criminal charges of sexually abusing the girl and to committing sex crimes against two other victims.  More recently, in early 2017, Bezar achieved a $5.95 million settlement for a woman who suffered respiratory failure and septic shock after personnel at a Philadelphia hospital failed to recognize a post-Caesarean infection after the delivery of her first child. She was forced to undergo additional surgeries, including a hysterectomy, and sustained a disfiguring abdominal hernia.  Also in 2017, Bezar won a $1.725 million settlement for an eight-year-old boy who was sexually assaulted by a teenager at a Montgomery County residential youth facility. The victim was supposed to have been supervised at all times but was not.  In one case, Bezar represented a man who had already spent much of his adult life as a quadriplegic, though he was able to use his wrist and hand to perform limited functions such as operating a motorized wheelchair. While undergoing a routine medical procedure, a doctor fractured the man’s arm. The injury made it impossible for him to use his wheelchair any longer or to drive a car that was being specially built for his use. Despite his client’s pre-existing physical disabilities, Bezar was able to obtain a multi-million dollar settlement in the case. He and his client also became close during the legal proceedings and remain friends to this day.

He is a frequent lecturer at continuing legal education (CLE) programs and at various seminars. Additionally, he has appeared on WTXF-TV’s New Jersey Journal and on CN8 with Lynn Doyle, and served as a legal correspondent on New Jersey Journal. He also is an adjunct professor at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University.  Bezar earned his undergraduate degree from Bates College, where he was on the varsity baseball team. He received a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Massachusetts and his law degree from the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Bezar is a Robert Conwell Society contributor to the law school. He is on the executive committee of the Temple Law Alumni Association and recently received the TLAA Diversity Leadership Award.  Bezar is on the Board of Directors of the Juvenile Law Center, that nation’s oldest non-profit law firm for children, and the Temple Law Alumni Association. He has been on the board of directors and advisory councils of a number of other professional organizations, including the Philadelphia Bar Association, the Philadelphia South Asian Bar Association, the South Asian Bar Association of North America (past president), the Pennsylvania Association for Justice, and the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He has served as co-chair for the Philadelphia Bar Association Medical Legal Committee. In July 2016, Bezar was named by Philadelphia Mayor James Kenney to be a member of the Commission on Asian American Affairs.