Feldman Shepherd Founding Partner Carol Nelson Shepherd Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from The Legal Intelligencer

On June 27, 2013, The Legal Intelligencer honored Philadelphia medical malpractice attorney, Carol Nelson Shepherd of Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP, with a Lifetime Achievement Award presented to a selection of Pennsylvania’s most influential lawyers. In celebration of its 170th anniversary, this was the first year The Legal Intelligencer presented this award.

Each honoree was asked to provide a brief quote or anecdote about what the law has meant to them.
Shepherd said, “For more than 35 years, I have been inspired by the strength, grace and character exhibited by my clients, despite enormous loss and adversity. In particular, since my early years as a medical malpractice attorney, I have been privileged to represent many women who were denied timely diagnosis of breast cancer, who sought representation from a compassionate, but resolute female attorney. Helping brain-injured children as well as adults get the treatment and rehabilitation they need, and assisting families who have lost a loved one, has also been immensely rewarding.”

According to Shepherd, “Being a member of the Philadelphia legal community has been important in my life, as it has allowed me to work with a collegial and diverse community of attorneys and judges, with bar associations, trial lawyer organizations and many nonprofit legal service organizations in order to promote equal access to justice for all. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be a lawyer doing the work I love for wonderful and deserving clients at an amazing law firm that I had the honor of co-founding more than a quarter-century ago.”

A founding partner of the Philadelphia personal injury law firm Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock & Dodig, Shepherd has, for more than 35 years, represented clients in catastrophic personal injury claims. She handles solely medical negligence and related cases, including obstetric / childbirth matters, delayed diagnosis of cancer, surgical malpractice and many other cases involving substandard medical care and has achieved numerous multi-million dollar awards and settlements on behalf of her clients.

Shepherd served for many years as a Judge Pro Tem for the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the Litigation Counsel of America. She has also served for many years as a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates.

A career-long industry leader, Shepherd served as the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association’s first female president in 1987, the first woman to attain the presidency of any local trial lawyers’ group nationwide. She later became the second woman to serve as President of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association (now the Pennsylvania Association of Justice). She has headed the PAJ Women Lawyers Committee and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women in the Profession Committee. She has served on the board of the Women’s Law Project and on the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Gender Bias Task Force and the Women’s Task Force Advisory Council’s Mentoring Group for Young Women Attorneys. Shepherd has chaired a hearing committee for the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and was honored by the Women’s Resource Center for her exceptional contributions to the legal profession. She has also received the prestigious Musmanno Award given by the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and the Rosenberg Award from the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. She has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer every year since 2004 and is listed among the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania, the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Pennsylvania and the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Philadelphia.

About Feldman Shepherd — Feldman Shepherd Wohlgelernter Tanner Weinstock Dodig LLP has handled cases producing some of the largest verdicts and settlements in Pennsylvania. The firm represents plaintiffs in significant personal injury, class action, and other complex civil litigation. Clients include victims of medical malpractice, defective products, unsafe workplaces, motor vehicle accidents, legal malpractice and insurer misconduct.