Another ex-Kline & Specter attorney is mounting a legal fight against his former firm.

Terrance DeAngelo, who resigned from Kline & Specter in September and now heads TR DeAngelo Law, filed a complaint Tuesday accusing his former employer of threatening attorneys who try to leave the firm and interfering with departing lawyers’ client relations.

And while the lawsuit is new, DeAngelo's claims echo many of the allegations made against Kline & Specter in the firm’s heated dispute with another of its former associates, Thomas Bosworth. In fact, the litigation between Kline & Specter and Bosworth was heavily referenced in DeAngelo's 30-page complaint. DeAngelo alleged in the lawsuit that the firm and its leaders mistreated him and reduced his caseload because of his ongoing friendship with Bosworth.

DeAngelo claimed in the lawsuit that, after Kline & Specter fired Bosworth, the firm and its founding attorneys Thomas Kline and Shanin Specter allegedly “mistreated DeAngelo, stripped him of cases, threatened him, and, through their counsel, tried to dissuade DeAngelo from testifying truthfully at his deposition in the Bosworth/K&S litigation.”

Lamb McErlane partner Joseph Podraza Jr., who represents the defendants, called the lawsuit “sad and meritless" and noted that DeAngelo and Bosworth are friends.

“This copycat filing predictably will meet the same fate as the lawsuit filed by Mr. Bosworth,” Podraza contended in an email.

Bosworth and Kline & Specter reached a settlement in August, cutting off what had been an expansive legal fight. And DeAngelo’s lawsuit mirrors some of the claims Bosworth made over the course of the litigation.

Both lawyers alleged in lawsuits that Kline & Specter improperly sought to dissuade clients from following them to their new practices. They also both claimed in legal filings that Kline & Specter refused to transfer client files to them following their moves.

And both Bosworth and DeAngelo claimed Kline & Specter’s employment agreement was unenforceable.

DeAngelo, in the complaint, specifically took aim at two clauses in the firm's employment agreement: one requiring a departing lawyer to reimburse Kline & Specter for costs associated with any clients who elect to follow the attorney, and one dictating that a departing lawyer must wait to contact clients until after Kline & Specter has already done so.

Advancing a similar argument that Bosworth had once made, DeAngelo argued in the complaint that those clauses go against public policy and ethics rules about attorneys’ obligations to clients when a lawyer changes firms.

In the weeks leading up to the initiation of his lawsuit, DeAngelo had made similar assertions in petitions across several actions asking for court intervention to compel Kline & Specter to turn over client files.

In his Tuesday complaint, DeAngelo asked the court for a declaratory ruling that the employment agreement is invalid and unenforceable. He also alleged in the lawsuit claims of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and tortious interference with existing and prospective business relations.

“Kline and Specter act as if the rules and law don’t apply to them,” DeAngelo's attorney, Alexandria Crouthamel of Crouthamel Law Offices in Bethlehem, claimed in an email. “Apparently," she added, "Kline and Specter did not engage in any self-reflection following their litigation with Mr. Bosworth."

DeAngelo, in the complaint, cited an instance in which a Philadelphia judge told Kline & Specter it could not hold “hostage” the files of one of Bosworth’s clients and ordered the firm to transfer them to Bosworth.

However, when Bosworth later challenged Kline & Specter’s employment agreement as unethical, another judge ruled the agreement was valid and enforceable.

Crouthamel asserted that DeAngelo’s challenge hinges on different legal issues from those involved in the Bosworth litigation because DeAngelo left Kline & Specter through a resignation rather than a firing. "Regardless," she contended, "the employment agreement is violative of numerous ethics rules."

DeAngelo's lawsuit comes when tensions appear to be reignited in the Bosworth litigation after several months of quiet. DeAngelo filed this complaint about a week after Kline & Specter accused Bosworth of failing to comply with the terms of his settlement with the firm.