The plaintiffs bar in Philadelphia tends to grow through splits, where up-and-coming young lawyers feel the need to branch off on their own. Some of those splits are amicable. Some are downright caustic, and several have led to litigation.

Few, however, have been as seemingly sudden as when former Kline & Specter attorney Thomas Bosworth went from winning the state's largest medical malpractice verdict for the year to being fired and then sued by the firm—all within a three-month span late last year.