Editor's note: This is part of an ongoing series of profiles of Pennsylvania attorneys.
PHILADELPHIA – After graduating college nearly 30 years ago, Nadeem Bezar was uncertain of what career he wanted to pursue. Despite many of his peers choosing the finance industry and Bezar's pursuit of higher education in industrial engineering, he felt he wanted something more.
"While I enjoyed the engineering program, I did not find myself that cerebral and one of my professors suggested that going to law school might be a great way to use my engineering degree," Bezar told the Pennsylvania Record.
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"While I did not grow up wanting to be a lawyer, both my parents were doctors, so the apple rolled far from the tree with respect to that."
Today, Bezar is an attorney with Kline & Specter at its Philadelphia office, where he is currently practicing in the area of plaintiffs' civil litigation with a specialization in children and young adults who have been sexually assaulted in alternative placement settings.
"There is an alarming number of children in the foster care system and those who are removed from their parents' home and are placed in residential treatment facilities," Bezar said.
"Quite tragically, many of these children are being physically and sexually assaulted, and I represent their interests in litigation against parties that allowed it to happen."
Bezar was responsible for filing one of the first human trafficking lawsuits against local hotels and motels, in the hopes of eradicating such incidents from the area.
Working in the line of plaintiffs' civil litigation brings its own set of challenges, Bezar said.
"Because there are so many of these children, I think the challenge is to put the work down for even a moment and reflect about what I'm doing and take a moment for myself," Bezar said.
"After being a lawyer for 28 years, I am still excited about work every day; I think that's pretty exciting and impressive when you consider the burnout that so many people experience after years in the same job."