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...
Steve Baron, 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...
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 a member 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’s Washington, D.C. office 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 is a member of the firm’s robust Qui Tam practice, focusing on litigation to combat civil...
Delia Castro joined Baron & Budd’s Trucking & Catastrophic Injury Group as an associate in 2023. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Ms. Castro worked for a personal injury firm in Dallas, Texas, where she represented individuals in a variety of personal injury cases including motor vehicle and trucking wrecks and gained significant...
Saheli Chakrabarty joined the Pharmaceutical Litigation Group at Baron & Budd’s Dallas office in 2018, in pursuit of her longstanding goal of working to positively impact the healthcare industry. At Baron & Budd she is thrilled to be having the influence she envisioned. Ms. Chakrabarty was born in India and spent the majority of her...
Sterling Cluff works in Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office, where he takes on large-scale litigation as a member of 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 Action...
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,...
Jennifer Fountain Connolly is a Shareholder in Baron & Budd’s Washington, D.C. office and a member of the Opioid Litigation Group. She has more than two decades of experience leading national, complex litigation matters including antitrust, pharmaceutical and consumer fraud class actions, qui tam cases, and cases brought by state attorneys...
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...
Catherine Hancock Dorsey is a senior appellate attorney and shareholder in the Washington D.C. offices of Baron & Budd and a member of the 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 cases in her...
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...
Celeste Evangelisti has devoted almost two decades of her career to representing individuals, municipalities and public water suppliers who seek to recover costs to clean up contamination from the companies responsible – those who put dangerous products into the stream of commerce without ensuring they will not cause extensive environmental...
David Fernandes joined Baron & Budd’s California office as an associate in August 2014. He represents 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...
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 obtained significant settlements on behalf of communities, having resolved more than $2.15 billion dollars for his public entity clients since December 2018 alone. John Fiske was the 2020 California...
Grace Fujita joined the Los Angeles office of Baron & Budd in 2018. She is a member of the Class Action Litigation Group. Before joining Baron & Budd, Ms. Fujita successfully represented numerous clients in a wide range of high-exposure matters ranging from claims of excessive force and violations of civil rights against law enforcement...
Andrew K. Gardner is an attorney in the Pharmaceutical Litigation Group at Baron & Budd. He joined the firm in 2021 after spending several years seeking justice for individuals harmed by the negligence of pharmaceutical conglomerates, defective product manufacturers, reckless motorists and irresponsible big-rig trucking companies. Mr. Gardner...
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...
Molly Goza joined Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group in 2019. She works with the pharmaceutical team representing municipalities harmed by the opioid epidemic. A Texas native, Ms. Goza played softball for University of Mississippi and Louisiana Tech University. During her time as a student-athlete, she earned Southeastern Conference...
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 Pharmaceutical Litigation Group at the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. She works with the firm’s pharmaceutical team to make a difference in the fight against the opioid crisis. Ms. Handt earned undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Criminology from the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas,...
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...
Aaron Howard is an attorney in the Pharmaceutical Litigation Group at the Dallas office of Baron & Budd. There, he represents clients harmed by dangerous prescription drugs and medical devices. Mr. Howard received his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where he was active on the mock trial...
Jason Irish is an attorney in the Dallas Offices of Baron & Budd. He joined Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group in 2019 after moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Mr. Irish graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with a degree in International Relations, focusing on China and East...
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 at Baron & Budd, has dedicated his career to fighting the companies that knowingly exposed people to the deadly carcinogen known as asbestos. Todd enjoys partnering with patients and families and helping them navigate the legal process during the most difficult time in their lives. Todd works on the front lines with...
Peter Klausner joined the Class Action group as an associate at the Los Angeles offices of Baron & Budd in 2016. He has spent the entirety of his career representing victims of fraud, malpractice and negligence. He has advocated on behalf of numerous injured clients and state agencies at all phases of litigation, including multiple jury trials...
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 more than a thousand individuals and public entities harmed by toxic contaminants, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), methyl...
Terra Lane joined Baron & Budd as a staff attorney in 2021. She works with our Opioid Litigation Group to review documents pertaining to the successful representation of our clients in the fight against the opioid epidemic. Ms. Lane was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At a young age, she developed a passion for history, writing...
A’Lys Lawrence is an attorney in Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group. She joined Baron & Budd in 2019 after several years of working in the oil and gas industry. Ms. Lawrence received her B.A. in Government and Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin and studied abroad at the University of Cádiz in Spain. As an...
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 a member of 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...
Jeffrey Lipinski began working with Baron & Budd’s Class Action Litigation Group in 2016, joining the firm in 2018. He represents individuals injured by dangerous or defective products, as well as those whose intellectual property interests have been commercially misappropriated. His current work on opioid litigation involves leading a team...
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...
Catherine Niebergall is a member of the Opioid Litigation Group in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd, where she represents municipalities in the fight against opioids. Ms. Niebergall is a San Diego, California native who moved to Texas in 2011. Ms. Niebergall attended the University of California, San Diego, where she earned a Bachelor’s...
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 a member of 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...
Charles G. “Chip” Orr is a member of Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group. Before joining Baron & Budd as a shareholder in 2019, he spent the past decade at a boutique pharmaceutical and medical device law firm, successfully litigating mass tort cases for plaintiffs from across the country. Mr. Orr has 25 years of experience...
Dori Persky Tesser joined the Washington D.C. offices of Baron & Budd in 2021 as an associate with the Opioid Litigation Group. Before joining Baron & Budd, Ms. Persky Tesser worked at The Gori Law Firm for five years, where she represented hundreds of individuals who have developed serious illness from exposure to asbestos. Ms. Persky...
Mark Pifko, a Shareholder at Baron & Budd, specializes in the prosecution of high-profile class action 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...
Stanford Ponson is an attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Baron & Budd. As part of the firm’s Opioid Litigation Group, Mr. Ponson represents municipalities and states in the fight against opioid manufacturers and distributors. Mr. Ponson has always been an advocate for plaintiffs’ rights. Prior to joining Baron & Budd, Mr....
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 a member of...
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 in Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group. He joined the firm in 2019. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, cum laude, from Texas Tech University in 2012, Mr. Rakes attended the University of Houston Law Center. During law school, Mr. Rakes was a Dean’s Scholarship recipient who received the Lex...
Noah M. Rich joined the Washington, D.C. office of Baron & Budd in 2018, where he represents clients on a broad range of legal issues at all stages of litigation in state and federal courts across the country. His experience includes civil rights litigation, class actions, regulatory challenges, False Claims Act litigation, and indigent...
Ryan Robelot joined Baron & Budd as a staff attorney in 2022. He reviews documents for our Opioid Litigation Group. Mr. Robelot earned his Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Arkansas, where he was also a 3-year letterman in football. Afterward, he attended St. Thomas University College of...
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 a member of 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...
Cristina Sanchez had originally planned to go to medical school, but her work at a small plaintiffs’ firm after college inspired her to instead pursue a career in law. She works primarily with clients who have been harmed by the BP oil spill that severely impacted her hometown of New Orleans. Ms. Sanchez joined Baron & Budd in 2005 to follow...
Zach Schaengold joined the Washington D.C. Offices of Baron & Budd in 2021 as an associate with the Opioid Litigation Group. Before joining Baron & Budd, Mr. Schaengold advocated on behalf of people and public interest matters at the plaintiff-side class action law firm Markovits, Stock & DeMarco, LLC, and as an assistant attorney...
Vanessa Schiodtz joined Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group in 2018 where her work focuses on complex environmental contamination cases. Ms. Schiodtz was born in Sydney, Australia, but has called Washington State her home since 1980. She considers herself a true Seattleite and is a “double Husky”, having obtained both her...
Ori Shaffin is an attorney with Baron & Budd’s class action litigation department in Encino, California, where he represents municipalities for damages resulting from the devastating and heartbreaking consequences of the opioid crisis. Throughout his career, Mr. Shaffin has exclusively represented only those clients whose cases he genuinely...
As a native San Diegan, Torri Sherlin brings a lifelong passion for the environment to Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group, which she joined in 2018. Ms. Sherlin is proud to be a key attorney on the Baron & Budd team that has resolved more than $1.62 billion for public entities in wildfire claims since December of 2018...
Alex Sherman joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2018 as a member of the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. Mr. Sherman has dedicated his career to “protecting what’s right” and standing up to fight for people facing significant struggles, whether it’s justice for those harmed by financial fraud, automobile defects, or...
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 in 2018 to form our Washington D.C. office, Mr. Simmer continues to...
Elizabeth Smiley joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office in 2018 as a member of the Firm’s Class Action Litigation Group. There she helps bring nationwide, multi-million dollar lawsuits to successful conclusion on behalf of our clients. Ms. Smiley attended the University of Arizona where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business...
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’s Class Action Litigation Group in its Los Angeles office in March 2020. 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 predatory corporate...
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 been a member of 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 a member of the Opioid Litigation Group in the Dallas offices of Baron & Budd. Mr. Tyler is an Oklahoma native who relocated to Texas in 2019 when his wife accepted a transfer for work. He attended Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University where he graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Business Administration in...
Michael von Klemperer is a shareholder in Baron & Budd’s Opioid Litigation Group in Washington, D.C. Since joining the firm in 2020, Mr. von Klemperer’s practice has focused on representing state attorneys general in litigation across the country. He currently represents nine states in their cases against opioids manufacturers,...
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...
Kelly Wheeler joined Baron & Budd as an associate in 2021. She works with our Opioid Litigation Group to represent states and municipalities harmed by the opioid epidemic. Prior to coming to Baron & Budd, Ms. Wheeler gained valuable experience in commercial litigation, personal injury and insurance defense. During her four years with a...
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...
Andrea Zarikian joined Baron & Budd’s Washington D.C. office in 2021 as an associate in our firm’s Opioid Litigation Group. Through her experience, Ms. Zarikian has learned that not all companies follow established regulations regarding safety in the products they sell, instead putting corporate profits over the wellbeing of people, which...
Evan Zucker joined Baron & Budd’s Los Angeles office as an associate in 2014. He 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 Baron...