Robert Dale Klein104 West Street
P.O. Box 551
Annapolis, Maryland 21404-0551
Phone: (410) 263-5900
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Fax: (410) 263-6583

Recognized by his peers as a Maryland Super Lawyer, Mr. Klein is one of the Firm's founders and now serves "Of Counsel" to the Firm. In 2018, he was selected to join the ranks of America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators in Maryland. Less than one-half percent (0.5%) of litigators in the United States will ever receive this award.Since 1976, Mr. Klein has focused on civil litigation, especially on the defense of products liability, mass tort and complex commercial matters. Mr. Klein also is a trained mediator, with emphasis on the mediation of complex matters. Admitted to practice in Maryland and the District of Columbia, Mr. Klein also has been admitted pro hac vice as lead counsel in at least nine states and in federal multi-district proceedings.

Mr. Klein's experience includes serving as national coordinating counsel in toxic tort, product defect and construction defect cases filed in nearly every state in the U.S.A, as well as its territories and in foreign countries. In those roles, Mr. Klein successfully developed, implemented, and coordinated the defense strategies of more than 50 law firms nationwide and in foreign jurisdictions. With four decades of experience as the chief strategist and negotiator in the resolution of complex tort and commercial litigation matters across the country, Mr. Klein has successfully resolved more than 125,000 product liability and other complex claims.

 First appointed in 1994 by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland, Mr. Klein served eighteen years as a member of the Court's Standing Committee on the Rules of Practice and Procedure. He has chaired or been a member of the following subcommittees: Trial, Management of Litigation, Discovery, Form Interrogatories, Computer-Generated Evidence, Alternative Dispute Resolution, General Provisions, and CLE Liaison with the MSBA. In these roles, Mr. Klein has helped develop and draft the procedural rules governing all aspects of litigation in the Maryland court system. Mr. Klein's more recent work in this regard has particularly focused on technologic and scientific issues, such as computer-generated evidence, discovery of stored information, and developing rules to implement electronic filing of pleadings and papers at all levels of the Maryland courtsystem(a $50 million project). He also guided the development of comprehensive rules governing Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Mr. Klein is the author of a well-respected two-volume treatise on civil procedure and trial practice, Maryland Civil Procedure Forms, With Practice Commentary, which he has supplemented annually since the book's original publication in 1984. Mr. Klein has taught at the Maryland Judicial Institute, and also has published and lectured extensively on product liability law and civil practice in the United States and abroad.

Mr. Klein has a distinguished history of involvement with professional and civic organizations, including service as President and a Director of the North American Foundation for the University of Durham in England (a/k/a Dunelm USA), as a Sustaining Member and Executive Committee Member of the Product Liability Advisory Council, Inc., as a President of Maryland Defense Counsel, Inc., and in numerous leadership positions within the Bar Association of Baltimore City. Mr. Klein is a biographee in Marquis' Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Industry. In 2018, Mr. Klein received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from the publisher of Who’s Who. He also is a recipient of the Defense Research Institute's Exceptional Performance Award, and is the first recipient of the Dunelmensis Award issued by England's third oldest university, the University of Durham, for exemplary service by an alumnus. Mr. Klein is AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rated in Martindale-Hubbell.

Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings - McAfee & Taft

Bar Admissions:

  • Maryland, 1976
  • U.S. District Court District of Maryland, 1977
  • U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit, 1977
  • District of Columbia, 1983
  • U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, 1983

Education:

  • Columbia Law School, New York, New York, 1976 J.D.
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1973 S.B.
  • University of Durham, Durham, England, 1972 (JYA)

Published Works:

  • "Maryland Civil Procedure Forms -- Practice", 2 Vols., Lexis Law Publishing, 3rd Edition, Supplemented annually, 2000
  • "Managing E-Discovery and ESI: From Pre-Litigation Through Trial", American Bar Association, 2011 (Co-author of Chapter 3)
  • "A Comparison of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability and the Maryland Law of Products Liability", 30 University of Baltimore Law Review 273, 2001
  • "Old Products -- The Admissibility of State of the ArtEvidence in Product Liability Actions", 9 Journal of Products Liability 233, 1986
  • "Caps in the Hat: Legislative Lids on Runaway Verdicts", For the Defense, July, 1986
  • Co-Author: "Caps in the Hat Come Back: Revisiting Legislative Lids on Runaway Verdicts", For the Defense, September, 1993
  • "Comparative Fault in Maryland: The Time Has Come", 41 University of Maryland Law Review 275, 1982

Honors and Awards:

  • Appointed to the Standing Committee on the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Supreme Court of Maryland (1994 - 2012)
  • America's Most Honored Lawyers, Top 1%, American Registry (2015-present) 
  • America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators in Maryland (since 2018)
  • Maryland Super Lawyer (2009 - present)
  • Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2018)
  • Dunelmensis Award (2010), University of Durham (England) (the first recipient of this annual Award)
  • Defense Research Institute, Exceptional Performance Citation (1987)
  • Biographee in Marquis Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Industry

Professional Associations and Memberships:

  • The District of Columbia Bar
  • Maryland State Bar Association
  • Member, Litigation Section Maryland State Bar Association, 1990 - 1994
  • Co-Chair, Products Liability Committee Anne Arundel County Bar AssociationMaryland Defense Counsel, 1986 - 1987
  • President Maryland Defense Counsel, 1983
  • Editor, The Defense Line Maryland Defense Counsel, 1992 - 1994
  • Chairman, Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure Maryland Defense Counsel, 1989 - 1991
  • Product Liability Committee Maryland Defense Counsel, 1991 - 1992
  • Member, Judicial Selections Committee Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc.
  • Sustaining Member Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc., 1997 - 2000
  • Member, Executive Committee Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc., 1991 - 1998
  • Co-Chair, Rules of Civil Procedure Action Group Defense Research Institute, 1980 - mid-1990's
  • Member The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1984 - 1987
  • Member, Executive Council The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1987 - 1988
  • Chairman, Product Liability Committee The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1986 - 1987
  • Standing Committee on Long Range Planning The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1984 - 1986
  • Standing Committee on Public Relations The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1987
  • Member, Special Committee on Tort Reform The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1983
  • Chairman, Special Committee on Video The Bar Association of Baltimore City, 1982 - 1987
  • Member, Standing Committee on Legislation
  • The North American Foundation for the University of Durham, Inc. a/k/a Dunelm USA
    • President/Treasurer/Director (1992-2016); Emeritus Director (2017-present)
  • Advisory Board on Paralegal Studies, Stevenson University(f/k/a Villa Julie College), 1984 - 2012
  • Member ADR Maryland (Panel of Neutrals), 2006 - 2018
  • Member Products Liability Advisory Council, Inc. – Sustaining Member (1991-2020)