Marni Berger

Marni S. Berger takes an innovative approach to litigating on behalf of her clients, focusing on maximizing recovery. Her experience, including time working at a leading regional full-service firm, has given her inside knowledge of the insurance industry and defense tactics, allowing her to navigate even the most complex challenges. She focuses her legal practice on securing meaningful recovery for victims of abuse and those who have been wrongfully denied insurance coverage. She is passionate about helping the most vulnerable members of the population in matters involving sexual assault and trafficking, institutional and domestic child abuse, Title IX and civil rights violations. She is also dedicated to holding insurers and insurance brokers accountable for procuring inadequate coverage and failing to provide owed coverage. Berger is a trial lawyer with experience in federal and state courts nationwide. Working with her means collaborating with a compassionate and patient attorney who actively listens and tirelessly fights for justice. Her approach to each case comes with creative thinking, transparency, and consistent communication. She is accustomed to litigating matters against institutions of all shapes and sizes who have deprived their clients of fundamental rights. Whether her clients need representation against a school, daycare, camp, medical facility, insurance company, or another individual, she is a zealous advocate throughout all phases of litigation. She has negotiated high-value settlements and successfully arbitrated and mediated matters involving multiple institutional defendants and insurers. Berger has won numerous dispositive motions. She recently overcame a motion to dismiss involving the timeliness of Title IX claims brought by a university student under the 2019 amendments to the Pennsylvania tolling statute. She also recently overcame a dispositive motion in a police-involved shooting matter in which the defendant contended he was entitled to qualified immunity. Berger has also achieved great success in briefing disputes involving allegations of bad faith and improper claims handling under commercial and personal line insurance policies. When not actively litigating cases, Berger consults clients on all options available to them in holding wrongdoers accountable so they understand their rights and can proceed accordingly. She excels at finding innovative approaches to secure and maximize recovery, even in the face of complexity or seemingly insurmountable challenges. For example, she successfully initiated cases against insurance brokers for their failure to procure appropriate coverage on behalf of their clients, even though the plaintiff lacks the legal right to directly sue the defendant's insurer. The creative solution she employs involves the defendant voluntarily transferring their legal rights to the injured plaintiff to pursue an insurance recovery for the betterment of the plaintiff. A plaintiff assigned a defendant's rights can sometimes initiate legal action against the defendant's insurer for appropriate insurance coverage. In another example, Berger secured a settlement against a preschool that exceeded the policy limitation for sexual abuse and molestation. She achieved this favorable result for her clients by skillfully pleading the case, demonstrating her creative approach to making her clients whole. Berger was admitted to practice law in 2010. She has practiced in each of the federal, district and state trial courts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and served as national and local counsel for clients outside those jurisdictions. She has won several awards, including recognition by Best Lawyers in America for Personal Injury Litigation—Plaintiffs in 2024, naming to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Stars List from 2015-2025, Top 40 Under 40 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers in Pennsylvania through the National Trial Lawyers, and National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 from 2023-2025. She is a member of the National Trial Lawyers, the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association (leadership academy graduate), Pennsylvania Association for Justice, Montgomery Bar Association, and the American Association for Justice. She is also actively involved in the community, serving as a Judge Pro Tempore for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, mentoring law students and young lawyers within and outside of the firm, maintaining active involvement in the Montgomery Bar Association and Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association, and serving as a Board Member of "Sparking the Dream," a lawyer-Philadelphia high school student network radio show.