Maryland Civil Procedure Forms

Robert Dale Klein served for 18 years (1994–2012) as a court-appointed member of the Standing Committee on the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Supreme Court of Maryland. During his tenure on the Rules Committee, Mr. Klein chaired the Discovery Subcommittee, the Alternative Dispute Resolution Subcommittee, and served as a member of numerous other standing and ad hoc subcommittees including, Trial, Management of Litigation, Computer-Generated Evidence, Form Interrogatories, Comparative Fault, General Provisions, and others. Due to term limits, Mr. Klein stepped-down as a member of the Rules Committee effective July 1, 2012, but at the request of the Chair of the Rules Committee, he continued to serve as a special consultant with respect to the Committee’s work developing court Rules to implement a $50 Million project to create an electronic docketing and filing system at every level of the Maryland court system on a statewide basis.

Mr. Klein was graduated from Mt. St. Joseph College (1969), from the University of Durham, England, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S., 1973), and from the Columbia University School of Law (J.D., 1976). He is admitted to both the Maryland and District of Columbia Bars. Mr. Klein is “of counsel” to the firm he helped found and that bears his name, Wharton Levin Ehrmantraut & Klein, where he has practiced since 1987. Before that, he was a partner at Piper & Marbury in Baltimore (now known as “DLA Piper”).

Mr. Klein is a civil trial lawyer with special emphasis on product liability law. He has lectured on product liability and on civil trial issues in the United States and Europe. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of The Defense Line, published by the Maryland Defense Counsel, Inc.; his writings also include Managing E-Discovery and ESI: From Pre-Litigation Through Trial, (2011 ABA Publishing) (chapter 3 co-author); A Comparison of the Restatement (Third) Torts: Products Liability and the Maryland Law of Products Liability, 30 U. Balt. L. Rev. 273 (2001); Comparative Fault in Maryland: The Time Has Come, 41 University of Maryland Law Review 275 (1982); Old Products—The Admissibility of State of the Art Evidence in Product Liability Actions, 9 Journal of Products Liability 233 (1986); Caps in the Hat—Legislative Lids on Runaway Verdicts, For the Defense (July 1986); and Caps in the Hat Come Back—Revisiting Legislative Lids on Runaway Verdicts, For the Defense (September 1993). He was elected to membership in Scribes, a legal writing society. Mr. Klein also is a trained mediator who specializes in alternative dispute resolution of complex disputes.

Mr. Klein has actively served in numerous professional associations, including the Anne Arundel County Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association (co-chair of Litigation Section Product Liability Committee, 1990–1994). He also has served in the following capacities with the Baltimore City Bar Association: Substantive Law Committee on Product Liability (Chairman 1987–1988); Standing Committee on Public Relations (Chairman 1984–1986; Vice-Chairman 1983–1984); Special Committee on Video (Chairman 1983–1984); Standing Committee on Long Range Planning (Chairman 1986–1987; Secretary 1982–1983); Standing Committee on Legislation (1981–1987); and Young Lawyers’ Section Executive Committee (1984–1986).

Mr. Klein served for many years on the Board of the Maryland Defense Counsel, Inc. (President 1986–1987), has chaired its Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (1992–1994) and Product Liability Committee (1989–1991), and was a longtime member of the Defense Research Institute. For more than three decades, he was a very active sustaining member of the Product Liability Advisory Council (member, Executive Committee, 1997–2000; co-chair, Rules of Civil Procedure Action Group, 1991–1998), and is a recipient of the Defense Research Institute’s Exceptional Performance Award.

Mr. Klein is the Founder, and served 25 years as President, Treasurer and a Board member (including Chairman of the Board), of the North American Foundation for the University of Durham, Inc. a/k/a Dunelm USA (1992–2016). For his many years of leadership service in those roles, in July 2010 the University of Durham, England awarded Mr. Klein its first-ever Dunelmensis award given to an alumnus or alumna of that institution, which is England’s third oldest university. He is a biographee in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, and his peers have repeatedly honored him through recognition as a Maryland Super Lawyer. In 2018, Mr. Klein received the Alfred Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award from the publisher of Who’s Who. He also was selected to join the ranks of America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators in Maryland. Less than one-half percent (0.5%) of litigators in the United States will ever receive this award.