Stephan A. LeClainche

Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll

Stephan A. LeClainche believes courtroom experience is only part of the skill set required to effectively represent victims of medical negligence. Equally important is the empathy needed to counsel victims and their families through the litigation process.

After a recent settlement, a client wrote: “I have been truly blessed to have worked with Stephan and his whole team. I have never met more empathetic people. This has been the biggest struggle I have ever had to deal with. … There are no words to express how I truly feel or how thankful I am that this hospital finally has been brought to justice.”

LeClainche's focus this year has been on medical malpractice cases against hospitals, and three of them reached confidential multimillion-dollar settlements within four months.

In a case that generated more than 40 depositions, LeClainche represented a client who was dropped on his head during a routine surgical procedure. The fall resulted in a traumatic brain injury with debilitating consequences, including emotional, behavioral and memory deficits.

He also settled a wrongful death case against a hospital on behalf of a patient's widow and children. The man suffered a pulmonary embolism and died while sitting on his hospital bed after his discharge was ordered. A cardiac cause had been ruled out, but the hospital failed to investigate a pulmonary cause for his chest pain and shortness of breath during his hospital stay.

He also represented an emergency room patient who was never told by the hospital about the results of a critical blood culture, leading to irreversible damage to his spinal cord and paraplegia. A settlement was reached in August.

LeClainche, who heads Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll's medical malpractice group, is a member of the invitation-only American College of Trial Lawyers.