DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The nationally recognized law firm Baron & Budd is pleased to announce that six of the firm’s shareholders have been selected to the 2025 edition of the Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America. Russell Budd, Scott Summy, Roland Tellis, John Fiske, Mark Pifko, and Dan Alberstone have been recognized by Lawdragon for the significant impacts they have made on the legal profession and for their successes over the last year.
Lawdragon is a legal media company that provides online news, editorials, and publishes guides to the nation’s leading lawyers. Since it was founded in 2005, Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America has been established as one of the most prestigious guides in the legal profession. Selections are made based on a combination of journalistic research, nominations, and peer review.
Russell W. Budd, has served as a Baron & Budd shareholder since 1985 and president and managing shareholder since 2002. Since the 1980s, Budd has successfully protected the interests of asbestos victims across the country. Budd was instrumental in reaching settlements to fund and establish asbestos trust funds to protect current and future asbestos victims. More recently, Budd was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Settlement Negotiation Team for the National Prescription Opiate Litigation. Budd and the Settlement Negotiation Team have been responsible for negotiating more than $50 billion in settlements with the nation’s largest and most prominent drug distributors, manufacturers, and dispensers. Budd was also recently appointed by the Court to serve as Co-Lead Counsel for the Attorney General litigation track in the recently formed Insulin Pricing MDL pending in the District of New Jersey.
Scott Summy started the firm’s Environmental Litigation Group (ELG) in 2002. Summy has served both in court-appointed leadership positions and directly represented clients in some of the country’s largest environmental cases with national significance. Summy was one of the architects of a record $12.5 billion nationwide class settlement with 3M, the largest drinking water contamination settlement in U.S. history. He was also the architect for the following settlements: $1.185 billion against DuPont, $750 million against Tyco Fire Products; and $312 million against BASF Corporation. Summy was named as class counsel to oversee all these historic settlements. Summy also continues to serve as Co-Lead Counsel in the AFFF MDL litigation pending in South Carolina.
Roland Tellis is Chair of the Class Action practice at Baron & Budd where he is a leading trial attorney in complex, high-profile litigation. Recently, Tellis served as co-lead counsel in a lawsuit alleging that Hino Motors, Ltd. deceived consumers about the emissions and performance of its trucks. Tellis succeeded in securing a $445.5 million class settlement with the company. Tellis was also court-appointed co-lead counsel in a multistate class action lawsuit against car manufacturers Hyundai and Kia over failure to install an engine-immobilizer antitheft device and obtained a $200 million settlement for the millions of consumers affected by the defect. Currently, Tellis has been appointed to leadership roles in In re: ARC Airbag Inflator Products Liability Litigation, a multi-state class action involving tens of millions of defective airbag inflators, in In re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation, a multidistrict litigation against social media companies alleging the platforms are addictive and encourage harmful behavior in youths, and the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, a multi-state mass tort action filed by governmental entities against the manufacturers and distributors of opioids, widely believed to be the largest MDL case in U.S. history.
John Fiske is a shareholder at Baron & Budd who represents public entities. Fiske has resolved approximately $2.5 billion for his public entity clients since 2018. He has been instrumental in the California wildfire litigation, having resolved approximately $1.65 billion for more than 70 public entities statewide against investor-owned utilities Pacific Gas & Electric Company and Southern California Edison. At the same time, he’s fought for wildfire victims' rights by lobbying the California State Legislature for the preservation of California’s inverse condemnation rights, which enable residents to hold power companies legally liable when their equipment or negligence causes fires. His expertise and advocacy have led to features on VICE on HBO and coverage in other national media outlets.
Mark Pifko, a shareholder at Baron & Budd, focuses on the prosecution of high-profile class action cases against national corporations. Pifko’s cases have addressed corporate fraud and wrongdoing across a broad array of business areas. Pifko was co-lead trial counsel on behalf of the State of New Mexico in a trial against five retail pharmacies concerning their role in the opioid crisis in New Mexico. Pifko and the other members of the trial team recovered a combined $274 million in settlements from Albertsons, CVS, Kroger, and Walmart. In a separate trial against Walgreens, Pifko and the trial team representing the state of New Mexico obtained a $500 million settlement. Pifko is currently co-lead counsel representing public entities in the Self-Funded Payer Track of the national Insulin Pricing MDL.
Dan Alberstone is a shareholder in Baron & Budd’s class action practice group who takes on major corporations in consumer protection cases. Most recently, Alberstone served as co-lead counsel in a trial representing the State of Hawai’i against global pharmaceutical giants Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Sanofi Aventis U.S. LLC, Sanofi-Synthelabo Inc. and Sanofi US Services Inc. involving a significant, undisclosed limitation to their blood thinner medication, Plavix. Following a four-week bench trial, the court awarded the State $916,012,000, making it by far the largest legal award in the state’s history. Alberstone also served as co-lead trial counsel representing the state of New Mexico against Walgreens for their contribution to the opioid crisis in that state and obtained a $500 million settlement with Walgreens following a five-week trial.
About Baron & Budd, P.C.
With more than 40 years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation, Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of public entities and tens of thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cutting-edge litigation, trying hundreds of cases to verdict and settling tens of thousands of cases in areas of litigation as diverse and significant as dangerous and highly addictive pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, wildfires, environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues.
