Sean Affleck is an attorney in Baron & Budd’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. He joined the firm in 2024. Mr. Affleck is an alumnus of Florida State University and Florida Coastal School of Law. He furthered his legal acumen by obtaining a Master of Laws in Taxation...
Dan Alberstone co-manages Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles law office. He has more than 30 years of broad experience prosecuting complex litigation matters, including extensive jury trial experience. He specializes in consumer class action litigation in the areas of consumer protection and financial fraud. Mr. Alberstone’s reputation for...
Molly Allen joined Baron Budd as an attorney in 2019. She is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. A Texas native, Ms. Allen played softball for University of Mississippi and Louisiana Tech University. During her time as a student-athlete, she earned...
Sushma Bansal is an attorney at Baron & Budd. She joined the firm 2024 as part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Bansal began her legal career as a human rights lawyer working for Lawyers Collective, a public interest legal service provider in Mumbai, India,...
Steve Baron, a Baron & Budd shareholder, is an accomplished litigator known for his tenacity in pursuing justice for victims of corporate misconduct. He currently heads Baron & Budd’s mesothelioma and asbestos practice. As lead of one of the nation’s most aggressive litigation teams, Mr. Baron represents clients in cases that have...
Rebecca Bayless is an attorney with Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group. She joined the firm in 2024 as part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, Ms. Bayless was a 2005 graduate of Louisiana State University, where she...
Kelsey Brave joined Baron and Budd as an attorney in 2024. She is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mrs. Brave received her Juris Doctor from Regent University School of Law in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where she served as student staff for the Center...
Cody Bryner joined Baron & Budd as an attorney in 2024. He is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Bryner earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania in 2018. In 2021 Mr. Bryner received his juris doctor...
Russell W. Budd, a mainstay of the plaintiff’s bar with more than forty-five years’ experience representing victims of corporate wrongdoing, has been a trailblazer for the entirety of his career. Serving as a Baron & Budd shareholder since 1985 and president and managing shareholder since 2002, Mr. Budd presides over one of the nation’s...
After joining Baron & Budd in 2000, shareholder Carla Burke Pickrel helped pioneer the Environmental Litigation Group in 2004. In that role, she develops innovative legal strategies for cases arising from chemical contamination of drinking water supplies and natural resources. Ms. Pickrel shines as a writer who is able to distill complex...
Chris Campbell joined Baron & Budd’s Dallas Environmental Litigation Group in August of 2016. He works with our west coast environmental team representing municipalities harmed by hazardous chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and Trichloroethylene (TCEs), which have been allowed to leach into the soil and community drinking...
David Cannella is a shareholder in the Louisiana offices of Baron & Budd. As part of the Mesothelioma Litigation Group, he serves asbestos victims across the gulf state. After graduating from Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center in 1999, Mr. Cannella served as a law clerk to the Honorable Pascal F. Calogero, Jr., Chief...
Kenneth D. Capesius first joined Baron & Budd in 2018 as a paralegal. After earning his law degree from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), he returned to Baron & Budd as an Associate in 2022. Mr. Capesius works in the firm’s robust Qui Tam practice, focusing on litigation to combat civil fraud under the False Claims Act,...
Seth Casey joined Baron & Budd as an attorney in 2024. He is part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Casey is an Arkansas native who grew up in the Mississippi River delta. He attended Arkansas State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in...
Sterling Cluff works in Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office, where he takes on large-scale litigation as an associate in the firm’s Class Action practice. He brings an astute knowledge of complex California commercial, consumer and real estate law to our expert team. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Sterling Cluff worked in the Class...
Christopher Colley is a shareholder in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. He began helping asbestos victims and their families in 2001, primarily along the Texas coast. He participated in hundreds of asbestos cases representing various trades of construction along with chemical and oil refinery workers, including pipefitters, boilermakers,...
Rebecca Currier is an associate in the Legacy Case Management Group at Baron & Budd, where she advocates for our clients with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases. Ms. Currier fights for compensation on their behalf from bankrupt asbestos companies. She strives to ensure that the victims of unscrupulous asbestos manufacturers...
Nick Custred joined Baron & Budd in 2019 as an associate briefing and appellate attorney in the firm’s Asbestos Litigation Group and Catastrophic Injury Group, where he advocates on behalf of clients with mesothelioma and other egregious injuries by utilizing research and writing skills to draft motions and court pleadings on issues specific...
Michael Dobbs joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office as an associate in 2024. He works in our Class Action Litigation Group. His life-long commitment to public service and social justice led Mr. Dobbs to litigate on behalf of victims of consumer fraud and manufacturer negligence. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Mr. Dobbs represented...
Catherine Hancock Dorsey is a senior appellate attorney and shareholder in the Washington D.C. offices of Baron & Budd, where she works in the firm’s Opioid Litigation Group. She brings almost 17 years of experience at the Department of Justice to Baron & Budd’s robust opioid practice and has briefed and argued an array of complex...
Kennedi Eaton joined Baron & Budd as an attorney in 2024. She is a part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Eaton is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she earned her Bachelor of Science in Supply Chain Management...
Chris Edwards joined Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group as an associate in 2016. He specializes in Electronic Discovery, which has been especially meaningful for advising numerous public entity clients in complex mass tort matters relating to environmental contamination and wildfires. In addition to overseeing every phase of...
Kelsey Elling joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2024. She works in the firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. Ms. Elling received her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law magna cum laude in 2019. During law school, she was a member of the school’s distinguished Trial Practice Institute, an articles editor on...
Lynnze English is an attorney in Baron & Budd’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. She joined the firm in 2024. Ms. English earned her Bachelor of Arts in Legal Communications from Howard University in Washington, DC, and went on to obtain her Juris Doctor from Howard...
Celeste Evangelisti has devoted more than twenty-five years of her career to representing individuals, municipalities, public water suppliers and states against chemical companies for cost recovery to clean up environmental contamination. A shareholder with Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group, Ms. Evangelisti currently represents...
Krystal Farias joined Baron & Budd in 2024, where she serves as an associate in the firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. In this role, she is actively involved in opioid-related cases, which she believes uniquely intersect her academic background in consumer protection issues with her expertise in trademark law. Ms. Farias is dedicated to...
David Fernandes joined Baron & Budd’s California office in 2014. He is a shareholder representing clients across the United States in class action litigation involving automobile safety, fraudulent banking practices, and deceptive advertising. Mr. Fernandes was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He earned his J.D. from Pepperdine...
Lisa H. Fish joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office as an associate in 2024. She works as part of the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. Ms. Fish earned her Bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and her J.D. magna cum laude in from Boston University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts....
John Fiske is California’s leading public entity-as-plaintiff lawyer and a shareholder in the San Diego offices of Baron & Budd. Mr. Fiske has resolved more than $2.5 billion dollars for public entity clients since 2018. John Fiske was the 2020 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year in Environmental Litigation and is a ten-time consecutive...
Jessica Gooding joined Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group as an eDiscovery associate in January 2020, where she manages electronic information vital to the firm’s large-scale complex environmental tort cases, including the nationwide multi-district litigation against 3M, DuPont, and other corporations related to PFOA/PFOS...
Bryan Green, a Baron & Budd shareholder, heads the firm’s Trucking & Catastrophic Injury Section. He represents individuals and families who have lost loved ones or suffered devastating life-altering injuries. His litigation team has built a reputation for aggressively pursuing justice for their clients and holding those at fault...
Julia Handt is an attorney in the Opioid Litigation Group at the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. She is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Handt earned undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Criminology from the University of Texas at Dallas in...
Ann Harper has spent her career representing workers who have developed mesothelioma and other serious illnesses caused by exposure to asbestos. She is a shareholder in Baron & Budd’s settlement department, where she works through the issues necessary to get the firm’s clients compensation in their lawsuits and to pursue their claims...
Jason Irish is an attorney with Baron & Budd. He joined the firm in 2019 after moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Irish graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio,...
Adam Iyob joined Baron & Budd as an attorney in 2024. He is part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Iyob completed his undergraduate education at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Afterwards, he attended the University of Washington School of Law, located...
Stephen C. Johnston puts his degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences to good use as a shareholder with the firm’s Environmental Litigation Group, representing individuals and communities seeking clean-up costs for contaminated water supplies. Mr. Johnston began his career with Baron & Budd in 1997 as part of the firm’s asbestos...
Jason Julius, a shareholder with Baron & Budd, joined the firm’s Environmental Litigation Group in 2017. Bringing those who pollute our precious natural spaces to justice is what drives Mr. Julius’ passion every day. Mr. Julius played an extensive role in the firm’s PCB litigation, seeking to hold Monsanto Company responsible for...
J. Todd Kale, a shareholder in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd, has dedicated his career to fighting the companies that knowingly exposed people to the deadly carcinogen known as asbestos. He enjoys partnering with patients and families to help them navigate the legal process during the most difficult time in their lives. Mr. Kale works on...
Peter Klausner joined the Los Angeles offices of Baron & Budd in 2016. He is a shareholder in the firm’s Class Action Group and has spent the entirety of his career representing victims of fraud, malpractice and negligence, advocating on behalf of numerous injured clients and state agencies at all phases of litigation, including multiple...
Sangeeta Kuruppillai first worked for Baron & Budd in 2010 as an attorney in the firm’s Environmental Litigation Group, reviewing discovery documents for cases involving atrazine, an herbicide used for weed control in farm crops which has been linked to prostate and breast cancer and is thought to be causing declines of endangered...
Emily LaCerte joined the Louisiana offices of Baron & Budd as an associate in 2022. She represents our clients who have developed mesothelioma and other diseases as a result of their exposure to the toxic mineral asbestos by manufacturers who chose to put profit over safety. Ms. LaCerte was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She attended...
Brett Land is a shareholder in Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group. Since joining the Environmental Litigation Group in 2014, he has represented individuals and public entities harmed by toxic contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), and...
Morgan Latin joined Baron & Budd’s Trucking & Catastrophic Injury Group as an associate in 2024. Ms. Latin’s greatest joy as an attorney is achieving justice on behalf of clients who lack the tools to successfully advocate for themselves. She does exactly that with Baron & Budd as she represents clients who have experienced...
Burton LeBlanc, a Baron & Budd shareholder, is a powerhouse advocate for individuals who have been harmed by corporate wrongdoing, having begun his legal career representing victims of toxic exposure and workplace hazards. His lifelong commitment to service through the legal system was fostered by family as a child in his home state of...
Jay Lichter joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2018 as an associate in the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. He knew his strong drive to fight for victim’s rights would be well-suited to Baron & Budd’s aggressive “fight for what’s right” approach to seeking justice for those harmed by financial fraud, automobile...
Christine Mansour has spent the better part of her career advocating for justice and working to protect the rights of the less fortunate. In 2017 she joined Baron & Budd’s Pharmaceutical Litigation Group to bring her appellate advocacy and briefing experience to Baron & Budd’s work on behalf of clients who have been harmed by the...
Cary L. McDougal, a shareholder with Baron & Budd, has served as lead attorney in more than 75 jury trials in state and federal court. Over the more than two decades that he has practiced law, Mr. McDougal has proven to be a formidable trial lawyer with unflinching resolve to serve his clients. He has tried cases involving such diverse areas...
Andrew Miller joined Baron & Budd’s Washington, D.C. office in 2018, where he focuses on bringing fraud and abuse litigation throughout the United States under such statutes as the federal False Claims Act, state False Claims Acts, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law. A shareholder in our Washington D.C. office, Mr. Miller also...
Marty A. Morris was an attorney with a well-known commercial litigation firm for several years before joining Baron & Budd in 1999. He now works with the firm’s asbestos litigation group, representing people with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases and assisting with the oversight of the firm’s intake department and other...
Monique Ndaya Mutombo is an attorney at Baron & Budd. She joined the firm in 2024 as part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Mutombo obtained her J.D. and Master of Laws (LL.M) in International and Comparative Law from Southern Methodist University, Dedman...
Catherine Niebergall is an attorney in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. She is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Niebergall is a San Diego, California, native who moved to Texas in 2011. Ms. Niebergall attended the University of California,...
Taylor O’Neal joined the San Diego, California, offices of Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group as an associate in 2021. Ms. O’Neal knew she wanted to become an attorney by the time she was eight years old. A desire to make a difference in people’s lives compelled her to embark on her legal journey. A deep and abiding...
Jessica Wagner Oeffner is an associate with Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group where she serves as electronic discovery counsel. She coordinates large-scale discovery projects, applying project management strategies and strong consultative support to efficiently and effectively navigate the intricacies of mass litigation. Ms. Oeffner has...
Staci J. Olsen is Senior Counsel of Electronic Discovery in Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group, where she specializes in the management of electronic information and people in mass litigation. This skill makes her a critical part of the Group, which focuses on large-scale complex environmental torts. She leads an internal team of...
Juan Ortega is an attorney with Baron & Budd’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. He joined the firm in 2024. Mr. Ortega is a Florida native. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree from Florida State University in Accounting and Management Information Systems in...
Michael J. Pacelli joined Baron & Budd’s Class Action Group in Los Angeles, California in 2023. He represents clients nationwide in complex, high-profile class action litigation involving fraud, breach of contract, and consumer protection issues. Mr. Pacelli has found success in his legal practice through hard work, tenacity, and never...
Mark Pifko, a Shareholder at Baron & Budd, specializes in the prosecution of high-profile and complex cases against multi-national corporations. Mr. Pifko’s cases have addressed corporate fraud and wrongdoing across a broad array of business areas, including in the financial services, pharmaceutical, and automotive industries. Since joining...
William G. Powers joined Baron & Budd’s Washington, D.C. office in 2018, where he represents clients in a broad range of legal issues at all stages of litigation in state and federal courts across the country. He brings a substantial breadth and depth of experience to the firm. As a shareholder at Baron & Budd, Mr. Powers is part of our...
Natalie Rabenhorst joined the Dallas office of Baron & Budd in 2008. While working for a plaintiff’s firm during her undergraduate studies, Ms. Rabenhorst became intrigued with the litigation process. She quickly realized she had a passion for the practice of law and for helping injured workers who might not always have the resources or...
Daniel Rakes is an attorney at Baron & Budd. He joined the firm in 2019 as part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, cum laude, from Texas Tech University in 2012, Mr. Rakes attended the University of...
Noah M. Rich is an associate in the Washington, D.C. offices of Baron & Budd, where he has represented clients on a broad range of legal issues at all stages of litigation in state and federal courts across the country since joining the firm in 2018. His experience includes civil rights litigation, class actions, regulatory challenges, False...
Anna Rol joined Baron & Budd’s Pharmaceutical Litigation Group in 2016. She represents individuals who have suffered serious injuries after taking a dangerous prescription drug or having a defective medical device implanted. Since the start of her legal career, Ms. Rol has been dedicated to giving a voice to those not in a position to speak...
Shannon E. Royster joined the Los Angeles offices of Baron & Budd in 2022. She is an associate in the firm’s Class Action Litigation Group and works on product liability litigation, automotive defect class actions and other complex litigation matters. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Ms. Royster spent several years focusing her litigation...
Jorge Sanchez is an attorney at Baron & Budd, having joined the firm in 2024. He is part of the document review team supporting the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Sanchez earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Philosophy from The University of Texas at El Paso in 2012 and his...
Ori Shaffin is an attorney with Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles, California office, where he is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Throughout his career, Mr. Shaffin has exclusively represented only those clients whose cases he genuinely and personally...
Torri Sherlin is a shareholder in Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group, which she joined in 2018. She practices in the San Diego Office with a team that has resolved more than $1.6 billion for public entities in wildfire claims since December 2018 alone. In 2020, Ms. Sherlin received the prestigious California Lawyer Attorney of the...
Scott Simmer founded the Simmer Law Group in Washington D.C., in 2014, but he’s been practicing law for decades and is a seasoned expert at rooting out deceit and fraud in hidden corners of government programs, education, and healthcare industries. Joining with Baron & Budd as a shareholder in 2018 to form our Washington D.C. office, Mr....
Elizabeth Smiley joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2018 as an associate in the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. There she helps bring nationwide, multi-million-dollar lawsuits to successful conclusion on behalf of our clients. In her work at Baron & Budd, Ms. Smiley is a trial attorney protecting the rights of consumers...
Simone Stallings joined Baron and Budd as an Attorney in 2024. She is part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Ms. Stallings earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in Spanish from Howard University in Washington D.C., where she graduated cum...
Heath Summers joined Baron & Budd as an attorney in 2024. He is part of the document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Summers earned his Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Missouri in St. Louis, MO, where he graduated with cum laude distinction in...
Scott Summy is the leader of the Environmental Litigation Group (ELG) and a shareholder at Baron & Budd. ELG was started by Mr. Summy in 2002 and is comprised of 30 attorneys and support professionals who concentrate on large environmental litigation across the country. In 2020, Law360 recognized ELG with its highly prestigious Practice Group...
Adam Tamburelli joined Baron & Budd in March 2020 and is a shareholder in our Class Action Litigation Group’s Los Angeles offices. Mr. Tamburelli chose to dedicate his career to seeking justice for victims of corporate greed after graduating law school in the midst of the late-2000s recession and witnessing the devastating impact that the...
Chad Taylor joined Baron & Budd’s trucking and catastrophic injury section in 2021. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Mr. Taylor worked for a boutique personal injury firm in Dallas, Texas. At that law firm, Mr. Taylor represented individuals in a wide range of personal injury cases including motor vehicle accidents, premises liability,...
Roland Tellis is the Chair of Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles-based Class Action Practice Group and co-manages the firm’s Los Angeles office. His practice focuses on complex, high-profile litigation, including consumer class actions, financial fraud, business torts, corporate misconduct, automobile defects, securities fraud and environmental...
Kris Thompson has worked in the New Orleans office of Baron & Budd since 2018. As part of the firm’s Mesothelioma Litigation Group, Mr. Thompson represents clients harmed by exposure to asbestos. His determination to obtain justice for victims of corporate greed sprang from his first representation of asbestos clients at Roussel &...
Brandon Tyler is an attorney in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. He is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Tyler is an Oklahoma native who relocated to Texas in 2019 when his wife accepted a transfer for work. He attended Oklahoma’s...
Holly Werkema is a shareholder in our Dallas office who manages Baron & Budd’s Pharmaceutical Litigation Group, where she represents clients and their families adversely affected by dangerous prescription drugs and defective medical devices. She joined Baron & Budd in 2012 in the firm’s general litigation group, representing homeowners...
Ryan Wiggins joined the Pharmaceutical Litigation Group at the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd as an associate in 2023. He represents clients harmed by dangerous prescription drugs and medical devices. Mr. Wiggins received his Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 2007. Mr. Wiggins has always had...
Brian L. Williams joined Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group in 2020, bringing with him nearly three decades of diverse legal and investigative experience. Dedicated to justice and finding the truth, he now works to help cities, counties and states hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for the national opioid crisis. Prior to...
Kenneth Whittaker is an attorney at Baron & Budd. He joined the firm in 2024 as is part of the firm’s document review team that works with the Class Action, Environmental, Qui Tam, and Opioid Litigation Groups. Mr. Whittaker graduated from Boston University in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations, focusing on China and...
Evan Zucker joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2014. He is a shareholder who specializes in class action cases, as well as banking and pharmaceutical litigation. Mr. Zucker is dedicated to fighting for the rights of consumers who have been harmed by the systemic, uniform and unscrupulous practices of corporations. Before joining...