Elia Robertson Caldwell

Elia Caldwell is a partner at Kline & Specter who litigates medical malpractice, personal injury, product liability and sexual assault cases. She is a former assistant Philadelphia district attorney and standout law school trial team competitor. In June 2023, Caldwell served as lead counsel and won an $8 million jury verdict in Montgomery County against Abington Memorial Hospital in a case involving a botched cesarean section that caused the mother to suffer two cardiac arrests and requiring emergency hysterectomy. Also in 2023, she secured confidential seven and eight-figure settlements in three related cases involving infant deaths from hospital negligence. Caldwell served as co-counsel in three major cases involving surgically inserted vaginal mesh products manufactured by Johnson & Johnson. One case resulted in a $120 million verdict in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against Ethicon Inc., including $100 million in punitive damages—at the time the largest verdict in national vaginal mesh litigation and the largest contested liability personal injury verdict in Pennsylvania history. She was co-counsel in another trial that concluded with a $41 million verdict for a Pennsylvania woman injured by an Ethicon vaginal mesh device following a five-week trial, including $25 million in punitive damages. In late 2017, Caldwell was co-counsel in a trial resulting in a $57.1 million jury verdict—including $7.1 million in compensatory and $50 million in punitive damages—against J&J for a Pennsylvania woman injured by the company's vaginal mesh device. Beyond trial work, Caldwell has negotiated numerous settlements in catastrophic injury cases. Caldwell has been selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Star each year from 2019 to 2025, placing her among the top 2.5 percent of attorneys in the state who are 40 or younger. While working as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, Caldwell tried felony preliminary hearings and misdemeanor bench trials. Her work in the Juvenile Unit involved domestic violence and sexual assault cases, including those involving adult perpetrators sexually and physically abusing minor children. Prior experience includes a clerkship with Community Legal Services, Inc., working with elderly people and individuals with disabilities. Caldwell also spent a year during law school with Philadelphia Legal Assistance, representing low-income litigants seeking Protection from Abuse orders and resolving child custody disputes. Caldwell earned her law degree from the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University, graduating with honors and winning several academic awards, including two CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for best student performances in trial advocacy. She received the James J. Manderino Award for Trial Advocacy from the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association. Caldwell competed nationally in mock trial and moot court competitions. As a mock trial team member, she was a regional champion in the Texas Young Lawyers National Trial Competition and a semi-finalist in the American Association of Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. With the moot court board, she won "Best Overall Advocate" in her school's internal competition and won the Best Student Brief Award in the Vanderbilt National First Amendment Competition, serving as both Vice President and President of the board. Caldwell won a national writing competition for student-authored articles held by the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Law Review, which published her article. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Saint Joseph's University, where she was a member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honors Fraternity and Alpha Kappa Delta, the International Sociology Honor Society.