Colin Burke

Colin Burke is a native Philadelphian and partner at Kline & Specter who represents individuals and families suffering serious injuries in workplace accidents, medical malpractice, auto and trucking collisions, dram shop claims, and premises liability actions, serving Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, New York, and nationwide clients. Over recent years, Burke has secured numerous million-dollar and multi-million-dollar recoveries. In 2025, he obtained $10 million for a bus accident causing leg amputation in an elderly woman, $7.5 million in a wrongful death medical malpractice case involving wheelchair security failure leading to severe spinal cord injury, and $4.5 million for improper intubation during surgery causing brain death. In 2024, he won $8 million in a medical malpractice case for a union construction worker who died from failure to diagnose bacterial infection. His 2023 results included $2 million for negligent firearm supervision resulting in death, $2.5 million for improper surgical intubation causing brain death, and $1.015 million for a union construction worker with severe leg injuries from a work truck strike. In 2022, Burke obtained $4.5 million for a plumber severely injured by a work truck, and in 2021, he secured $4.6 million in a crane collapse death case. In 2023, Burke served as co-lead counsel in litigation resulting in a $19 million verdict against a Delaware County, Pennsylvania nursing home and its management companies in a wrongful death case, including $15 million in punitive damages. He has been selected as among Pennsylvania's best lawyers by Super Lawyers for four consecutive years (2023-2026). Before joining Kline & Specter in February 2015, Burke worked at a law firm representing union members in criminal defense, family law, and labor and employment matters. He previously spent five years with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office as the sole prosecutor in 20 major felony jury trials involving attempted murder, aggravated assault, robbery, burglary, drug, and weapons offenses, handling hundreds of additional matters including juvenile crimes. Since joining Kline & Specter, Burke has amassed millions in client compensation. In 2017, he was co-counsel in the highly publicized Philadelphia case resulting in an $11 million jury verdict against the Devereux Foundation for a man shot and severely injured by a teenager who escaped from its juvenile behavioral rehabilitation facility in Glenmoore, Pennsylvania. Other notable results include: lead counsel in a $1 million settlement for an injured electrician (March 2020); co-counsel in a confidential multi-million-dollar settlement for a union construction worker's family (September 2019); lead counsel in a $1.65 million settlement following jury selection for a car accident victim (June 2019); co-counsel in a $3.4 million settlement for a woman injured due to negligent security (April 2018); lead counsel in a $1 million settlement for a toddler injured at daycare (January 2018); co-counsel in a $5.5 million medical malpractice arbitration award for a man with permanent eye injury following sinus surgery (November 2017); lead counsel in a mid-trial $3 million settlement for a woman assaulted in a Philadelphia garage (October 2017); and co-counsel in a $4.5 million settlement for a union worker's family (May 2017). Burke is a member of the Brehon Law Society and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. He formerly served on the Executive Board of the Young Lawyer Division of the Philadelphia Bar Association and received the 2017 Craig M. Perry Service Award for substantial community-oriented pro bono and charity work. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Archbishop Ryan High School (his alma mater) and the Glen Ford Conservation Corporation. At Catholic University of America, Burke won the Men's Soccer Senior Achievement Award and athlete academic awards. He financed his Widener University School of Law education by working three jobs simultaneously, including as a bartender.