Leland Kellner is a shareholder in the Industrial and Consumer Product Liability Practice Group in the Philadelphia office of Lavin O’Neil Ricci Cedrone & DiSipio. Mr. Kellner concentrates his practice in automotive product liability, industrial and consumer product liability, insurance defense of various products, automotive warranty and toxic tort litigation.
In addition, Mr. Kellner is involved in the regional management of asbestos litigation for several automotive and equipment manufacturers, defending and winning jury trials involving exposure to both insulation productions and friction materials, and handling appeals in such matters.
Mr. Kellner’s automotive practice has included the defense of catastrophic injury and defect claims involving rollover, restraints, post-collision fuel-fed fire, seat back, stability control, and glass. His industrial equipment practice has included the defense of lift truck claims involving tipover and stability, operator presence controls and other safety mechanisms. Mr. Kellner has also defended product claims against manufacturers of stump grinders, lawn mowers, snow blowers, hedge trimmers and leaf blowers.
Mr. Kellner currently serves as a judge pro tempore in the Complex Litigation Center of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. He has also taught legal research and writing as an adjunct professor at Widener University Law School, and has served on CLE panels, most recently moderating a discussion of the successful Pennsylvania Frye challenge to friction asbestos injury causation.
Mr. Kellner is admitted to the Supreme Courts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York; including the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the District Court of New Jersey; the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, and the United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
Mr. Kellner graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in International Relations from Tufts University in Massachusetts. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following graduation, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Samuel W. Salus, II, Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Kellner is an active member of the American Bar Association, currently serving as a Vice-Chair in the Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Committee of the Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Group, and The Defense Research Institute. Mr. Kellner is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
Publications
“Recent Pennsylvania Decision A Setback for Plaintiffs In Friction Asbestos Cases” ABA TIPS Toxic Torts & Environmental Law Committee Newsletter, Winter 2009
Personal
In his spare time, Mr. Kellner is a keyboardist and guitarist in various projects.
