Russell Budd

Russell W. Budd is a major force in the world of plaintiff’s attorneys, having devoted his three decade career to championing the rights of people and communities injured by corporate malfeasance. Currently Budd presides over one of the nation’s largest plaintiff’s firms, Baron and Budd, PC, headquartered in Dallas, Texas with offices in Austin, Texas; Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Budd, a shareholder of Baron and Budd since 1985 and president and managing shareholder since 2002, has expanded the firm from its cornerstone asbestos practice to a national firm capable of tackling the biggest defendants in areas as diverse as water contamination, qui tam, California Proposition 65 violations, pharmaceutical injuries, chinese drywall, insurance claims and securities fraud. Most recently, the firm has begun to represent individuals and businesses that have been affected by the Gulf Oil Spill.

Over the last decade, Budd has played significant roles in asbestos litigation on a national level. As chair and member of several asbestos creditors’ bankruptcy committees, Budd successfully resolved over 100,000 victims’ claims with some of Wall Street’s biggest companies. Budd was the chief negotiator of a $4 billion national settlement with Halliburton that established a trust fund to protect present and future asbestos victims throughout the United States - the largest asbestos trust fund of its kind anywhere in the world. He was on the committee that negotiated a $3.9 billion settlement with United States Gypsum to benefit asbestos claimants. And, he participated in negotiations that led W.R. Grace to agree to fund a bankruptcy trust on behalf of asbestos claimants with nearly $3 billion in cash and stock equity.

Under Budd’s direction, Baron & Budd donated $3 million to the International Pleural Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to research curative therapy for Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The firm has also given generously to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Lung Cancer Alliance and to other asbestos awareness advocacy organizations.