Elaine Whiteman Klinger

Education

• Villanova University School of Law, JD, 1991
• The American University, BA, 1988

Elaine is a partner in the Philadelphia office and has extensive experience in handling commercial litigation matters in both federal and state trial and appellate courts throughout the United States.

Elaine has handled coverage disputes involving environmental property damage, hearing loss, bad faith, asbestos, toxic torts, contribution claims, fidelity bonds, maritime, broker malpractice and other long-tail claims. Her trial experience includes work as lead counsel in multi-party environmental insurance disputes. Elaine has taken and defended hundreds of depositions of fact and expert witnesses, and worked closely with technical experts whose areas of expertise span diverse disciplines.

Elaine regularly counsels her clients in both litigated and non-litigated matters, including arbitrations, mediations and complex multi-party settlement negotiations. She has considerable experience negotiating the resolution of a wide range of commercial disputes along with providing insurance coverage analysis and counseling.

A significant portion of Elaine’s practice is devoted to employment-related matters—including litigating and trying claims of wrongful discharge, sexual harassment and various types of discrimination. She works closely with clients to develop efficient and effective litigation strategies and assists corporate and individual clients with various types of employment matters through counseling and negotiation of non-litigated matters (including the enforcement of non-compete agreements). Elaine reviews, drafts and negotiates severance agreements, employment contracts and non-compete agreements.

Elaine is often asked to chair and speak at industry conferences and to client groups on a wide-range of issues, including, but not limited to, allocation and contribution rights; evaluating, litigating and trying insurance coverage matters in federal and state courts; bad faith, attorney-client privilege and employment matters.