Baron & Budd Shareholders Named Best Lawyers in America® 2018 Recipients

Budd, Summy and Tellis honored for fourth consecutive year

DALLAS – August 28, 2017 – The national law firm of Baron & Budd is pleased to announce attorneys Russell Budd, Scott Summy and Roland Tellis have been named to the prestigious Best Lawyers in America 2018 list. Each of the three shareholders have been named to this list since 2014.

Best Lawyers is the oldest and one of the most respected attorney ranking services in the world. The list has been called “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice” by Corporate Counsel magazine. Attorneys named to The Best Lawyers in America are recognized by their peers in the legal industry for their professional excellence. For the 2018 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America, 7.4 million votes were analyzed, which resulted in an exclusive group of leading lawyers included in the new edition.

“The Best Lawyers in America list can be counted on to showcase the best and brightest attorneys in the United States,” said President and Managing Shareholder Russell Budd. “I’m incredibly proud of our team’s accomplishments, and it’s very reinforcing to know that this team’s expertise was once again recognized by our peers.”

Budd was recognized on The Best Lawyers in America list in the areas of Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs and Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 2014. Budd has spent more than three decades working to protect the rights of plaintiffs who have been harmed due to corporate malfeasance. A shareholder in the national law firm of Baron & Budd since 1985 and managing shareholder since 2002, Budd and his firm have earned a great deal of notoriety during his career. The National Law Journal named Baron & Budd to its prestigious “Plaintiffs Hot List” eight times and Budd has been nominated for the Public Justice Trial Lawyers of the Year Award four times in the past eight years. In addition, Budd was selected by Best Lawyers as a 2016 Lawyer of the Year.

Summy was also named to the list in the area of Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Plaintiffs. He has received this honor for 12 consecutive years. Summy’s practice is focused on water contamination cases, which have yielded more than one billion dollars in recoveries for his clients. He was one of the first attorneys in the United States to take action against the chemical company Monsanto for its role in contaminating schools with dangerous polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). He currently represents cities such as San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Seattle, Spokane, and Portland, as well as the state of Washington, in environmental and public nuisance actions against Monsanto Company for polluting America’s waterways with PCBs. In May 2017, Summy was selected as a winner of the Burton Awards, which recognizes the finest law firm writers in the country. Summy was also selected by Best Lawyers as a 2016 Lawyer of the Year and has twice been nominated for the Public Justice Trial Lawyers of the Year Award.

Tellis, who co-manages Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office, was named to The Best Lawyers in America 2018 list in the area of Commercial Litigation. He has been recognized by Best Lawyers since 2013. Tellis focuses his practice in the areas of consumer class actions, automotive defect litigation, commercial litigation, consumer financial fraud and deceptive advertising. Earlier this year, Tellis was part of the leadership team that negotiated a $500 million partial settlement with certain automakers in the Takata Airbag MDL. On July 30, Tellis led the Baron & Budd team that filed the first lawsuit concerning the revelation that Wells Fargo charged more than 800,000 unsuspecting auto loan customers for auto insurance they did not want or need. Tellis also led the Baron & Budd team that secured a $50 million non-reversionary common fund settlement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. which resolves a case alleging improper mark ups of fees for broker price opinions (BPOs). He has also achieved several other multi-million dollar class action settlements for consumers in deceptive advertising cases.

ABOUT BARON & BUDD, P.C.

The law firm of Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Dallas, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Austin, Los Angeles, and San Diego, is a nationally recognized law firm with a nearly 40-year history of “Protecting What’s Right” for people, communities and businesses harmed by negligence. Baron & Budd’s size and resources enable the firm to take on large and complex cases. The firm represents individuals and government and business entities in areas as diverse as dangerous pharmaceuticals and medical devices, environmental contamination, the Gulf oil spill, financial fraud, overtime violations, deceptive advertising, automotive defects, trucking accidents, nursing home abuse, and asbestos-related illnesses such as mesothelioma.