Baron & Budd Shareholder Carla Burke Pickrel Named to Top 25 National Women Trial Lawyers

August 12, 2020  |  Press Releases

August 12, 2020 02:58 PM EDT – DALLAS – The national law firm of Baron & Budd is pleased to announce that Shareholder Carla Burke Pickrel has been named in the Top 25 National Women Trial Lawyers for 2020.

The Top 25 National Women Trial Lawyers Association, a specialty association within The National Trial Lawyers’, is an invitation-only professional organization composed of and limited to the Top 25 women attorneys from each state or region who serve individuals and families who need attorneys to represent them in the legal system.

“I am honored to be selected and recognized by the National Trial Lawyers’,” said Carla Burke Pickrel. “The work we do to every day to protect the environment and our communities is a privilege and truly rewarding. Receiving this honor empowers me to strive even harder toward my commitment of exposing environmental contamination and helping the victims impacted by this negligence.”

Carla Burke Pickrel is a shareholder in the Baron & Budd Environmental Litigation Group, which litigates complex environmental contamination cases all over the country. As one of the pioneers of the Group, she has worked to develop legal strategy for cases arising from methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), atrazine, perchloroethylene (PCE), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination of drinking water supplies. In her time with the Group, she has represented hundreds of public entities — villages, towns, cities, utilities, school districts, and states.

Ms. Pickrel is particularly excited to litigate cases involving firefighting foams that release toxic perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) whenever used. Recent testing has detected these chemicals in drinking water supplies nationwide. “The manufacturers of these foams knew about the potential for contamination yet sold the products for use at military and civilian airports all across America without warning users of the potential harm caused to communities,” she says. Baron & Budd represents water providers dealing with the contamination now. These and all similar cases pending in federal courts across the United States were recently consolidated in multidistrict litigation (MDL) 2873 before Judge Richard Gergel in Charleston, South Carolina.

Ms. Pickrel also represents cities and states along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts including Baltimore, San Diego, Long Beach, San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley, Chula Vista, Portland, Port of Portland, Spokane, Seattle and the State of Washington in actions against Monsanto Company for polluting America’s waterways with PCBs. She has been appointed a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington in the case.

Ms. Pickrel’s current work rests on her long experience with nationwide environmental litigation. For more than 15 years, she has been a leader in nationwide litigation arising from MTBE contamination on behalf of more than 200 water providers in more than 20 states. She also played a major role in a nationwide class action settlement for providers whose water supplies are contaminated with atrazine, an agricultural chemical.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL TRIAL LAWYERS

The National Trial Lawyers is a professional organization composed of the premier trial lawyers from across the country who exemplify superior qualifications as civil plaintiff or criminal defense trial lawyers. This national organization provides networking opportunities, advocacy training, and the highest quality educational programs for trial lawyers. The mission of The National Trial Lawyers is to combine resources, power, and influence into formidable forces to preserve and protect individual rights, our profession, and the judicial system. Specialty Associations by The National Trial Lawyers are invitation-only organizations composed of the premier trial lawyers from each state or region who meet stringent qualifications as civil plaintiff and/or criminal defense trial lawyers. Selection is based on a thorough multi-phase objective and uniformly- applied process which includes peer nominations combined with third-party research. Membership is extended only to a select few of the most qualified attorneys from each state or region who demonstrate superior qualifications of leadership, reputation, influence, stature and public profile measured by objective and uniformly applied standards in compliance with state bar and national Rule 4-7.

ABOUT BARON & BUDD, P.C.

Baron & Budd, P.C. is among the largest and most accomplished plaintiffs’ law firms in the country. 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 entities and 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, California wildfires and environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues.

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