Cary McDougal

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 of the law as premises liability, product liability, general personal injury, medical malpractice, insurance litigation and environmental litigation.

For the first 14 years of his legal career, Mr. McDougal handled the defense of matters involving complex litigation throughout Texas and Oklahoma as a partner at two Dallas firms. He focused his practice on civil litigation, and he managed and tried all litigation for several North Texas health care agencies. He co-founded the law firm Aldous and McDougal, which gained recognition for its trial successes on behalf of plaintiffs in medical malpractice, contractual disputes and other matters. Mr. McDougal joined Baron & Budd in 2005.

A shareholder and manager of Baron & Budd’s Environmental Litigation Group, Mr. McDougal currently represents more than 200 municipalities and water providers across the country that are seeking clean-up costs for the contamination of their water supplies. His practice includes management of Baron & Budd’s cases in the Multi-District Litigation (MDL) MTBE water contamination litigation, which is considered one of the most complex pieces of litigation in the country. He also manages other environmental contamination cases involving chemicals such as TCP, TCE and dioxin.

Mr. McDougal oversees Baron & Budd’s representation of public entities and individuals harmed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), and trichloroethylene (TCE), including GenX. He manages the firm’s lawsuits against DuPont and Chemours for poisoning North Carolina drinking wells and the Cape Fear River with numerous toxic PFAS compounds. In addition, he oversees the firm’s cases involving firefighting foams that release toxic perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) into drinking water supplies nationwide. Most recently, he has directed Baron & Budd’s effort to seek justice for veterans and their family members who were exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune.

Mr. McDougal completed his law degree at the University of Texas School of Law and attained a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs. He continues to serve as a consultant to the LBJ school on issues concerning public policy. He has authored numerous legal papers on civil litigation and trial practice and has spoken at seminars before health care professionals, consumer groups, the insurance industry and attorneys on issues relative to civil litigation.

Mr. McDougal has been inducted into the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA), a recognition by his peers for his jury trial experience, commitment to the jury process, and ethics. He also holds the top rating from the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and was named a Texas Super Lawyer (Thomson Reuters 2005-2006).