Howard Specter

SPECTER: Howard Specter died on June 16, 2026. Loved husband of Elaine, stepfather of Dr. Joshua Blatter, grandfather of Max Blatter, a dear uncle, a friend and adviser to countless others; literally, a lawyers‘ lawyer. He was the brother of Zandra Specter. He was the son of Ben and Ethel (Gorn) Specter, now deceased. With offices in Pittsburgh, he conducted a practice that took him across the country. Asked why he enjoyed fighting for the individual against big corporations, he said, “There is something special for me about being able to see and talk to the people that I help. You can’t see or talk to a corporation or an administrative agency. Lawyers who represent those entities do important things but it’s not where Howard Specter‘s head or heart is.”
As a civil litigator, Specter worked in a variety of realms, including personal injury, wrongful death, product liability, medical malpractice, securities fraud, employment discrimination, antitrust and unfair competition. He was a proud past president of the organization formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (now the American Association for Justice), the nation‘s largest trial bar association. He was past president of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Western Pennsylvania. He was co-lead counsel in the national breast implant products liability litigation. He led the team in the litigation that followed the crash of Flight 427 in Pittsburgh. He was a forerunner in gaining equal job placement and pay for women stockbrokers and in assisting women to get claims adjuster positions in the insurance industry. He fought for the rights of women and persons of color in helicopter construction, women miners in Tennessee, women medical college professors in New York. He represented liquor stores in Oklahoma against suppliers who were fixing prices. He stood for bakeries in Louisiana, who were the victims of antitrust price-fixing practices. The list could go on. And on. PJC