April 28, 2023 Legal Intelligencer article by Bureau Chief Max Mitchell.

In a newly-filed amended complaint, Philadelphia personal injury firm & Specter has alleged that its ex-associate Thomas Bosworth manipulated firm leaders into firing him so he could weave a sympathetic narrative for both courts and his many social media followers.

The allegations expand on a lawsuit the firm brought against its ex-associate in March over Bosworth’s use of social media to allegedly defame and harass the firm. The amended complaint also adds a new cause of action for abuse of process, alleging the wrongful termination counterclaims Bosworth filed against his former firm last month were premised on the alleged falsity that he had intended to remain at the firm.

“Mr. Bosworth’s unambiguous admissions and concessions lay bare that his nine counterclaims are made out of whole cloth, filed in order to trick the court and the public into believing he is a victim and stir up trouble against the firm, all at great cost and expense to the firm and its reputation,” the new complaint, filed Wednesday by Lamb McErlane’s Joseph Podraza, said.

The complaint further alleged that “[i]n discussing the circumstances surrounding the conclusion of his employment at the firm,” Bosworth “confirmed that, by forcing his discharge rather than quitting, he believed he optically was in a better position to assert claims of retaliation against the firm if and when litigation commenced, despite knowing these claims were without genuine legal and factual bases.”

Bosworth’s attorney Michael van der Veen of van der Veen, Hartshorn and Levin, said in an emailed statement he was “disappointed to see the pleadings.”

“We are trying to resolve these matters. Kline and Specter asked my client to mediate an early resolution to these cases. They even picked the mediator. This kind of pleading… is not helpful to the mediation process,” van der Veen said. “This pleading skews the facts and impugns my client’s character and does not help find resolution. There will be plenty of opportunity in this litigation to damage the parties’ reputations when the cases are played out through discovery and run in The Legal, but now is not that time. I am hopeful that now is the time to resolve these cases.”

The amended complaint is the latest salvo in a contentious litigation between Kline & Specter and Bosworth, who was fired from the firm in November.

After the firm sued Bosworth in December, alleging he breached his employment agreement and took moves to establish his own practice while at the firm, the litigation spurred contentious counter claims and two additional complaints — one from the firm raising civil claims over Bosworth’s alleged online defamation and harassment of the firm, and one from Bosworth claiming Kline & Specter’s second suit was filed in retaliation for his pushback on the initial lawsuit.

With the addition of the abuse of process claims, the firm’s lawsuit now raises five claims against its ex-associate: defamation, commercial disparagement, wrongful solicitation and harassment.

Along with the new allegations, the suit focuses on Bosworth’s TikTok account, which has more than 178,000 followers, and which the firm says Bosworth used to attack the firm online. The complaint says the attacks were aimed at damaging the firm’s business, and also generated violent and at times antisemitic comments.

Among the numerous comments mentioned in the complaint, the firm noted that Bosworth had quoted lyrics from the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, that alluded to control of the media. Along with the fact that Ye, has gained a reputation for antisemitism, the complaint noted the antisemitic trope of regarding media control.

The complaint also included screenshots of comments that said, among other things, “Surprised more mass shootings don’t happen at legal offices,” and “Damn Jewish owned company,” and noted Bosworth had liked a comment that said “send them to the morgue man,” as well as other posts that discussed bombarding the firm’s Google reviews with negative comments.

Although the complaint noted that Bosworth removed some of his posts, it said one of the posts entitled “Greed” was pinned to the top of his feed, and that some comments, including one suggesting that someone should mail a dead skunk to the firm, came from a post as recent as April 13.

As a result of the comments, the firm noted in the complaint that it has been in contact with both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security.

“The firm justifiably fears that violence will result from the videos, postings and comments to date and any videos, postings and comments still to come,” the firm said in the complaint.

Bosworth has denied the firm’s allegations regarding allegedly promoting antisemitism, or violence, and has further rejected the characterization that he’s done anything improper through his use of social media. In his defamation lawsuit, he claimed the firm’s allegations are part of an effort to silence him over the allegations he has put forth regarding the firm’s handling of clients and a case file following his termination.

Specifically, Bosworth contended that the vast majority of comments to his posts were in no way violent or threatening, that none of his 1.4 million viewers reported the videos, and the platform did not take them down either.

In addition to the nine counterclaims he raised as a response to the firm’s initial lawsuit, Bosworth’s separate suit raised claims for defamation, abuse of process and commercial disparagement.

In an emailed statement regarding the latest allegations, firm leaders Shanin Specter and Thomas Kline said, “We continue to be primarily concerned with Mr. Bosworth’s unrelenting incitement of threats of violence against Kline & Specter employees. Even today, he is hosting a comment on his TikTok suggesting we should be sent a ‘dead skunk,’ just as he liked and hosted comments to ‘take them to the morgue’ and ‘kidnapping’ and hosted a comment referring to ‘mass shootings in legal offices.’ There is no place in the legal profession, or, for that matter — between civilized human beings — for Mr. Bosworth’s depravity.”

Since the lawsuits were filed, the judge initially assigned to the case, Judge Paula Patrick, has recused and the cases were assigned to Judge Nina Padilla in the court’s Commerce Program.

Read the article online at Law.com here.