Frederick Baron
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Frederick Martin Baron (born 1947 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is a trial lawyer best known for representing plaintiffs claiming toxic and chemical exposure. He has also been an active figure in politics as a fund-raiser for the Democratic Party.
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[edit] Legal career
Baron is one of America’s most prominent trial lawyers. He is a founder of Baron & Budd, P.C., a Dallas, Texas law firm and a former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.[1] His firm has become one of the largest firms in the country representing victims of toxic and chemical exposure particularly claims of asbestos exposure.
One academic estimated that Baron & Budd, along with Ness Motley, was one of two firms responsible for half of the hundreds of thousands of asbestos litigation claimants in the country.[2] Baron successfully convinced the United States Supreme Court to de-certify nationwide asbestos class action settlements involving future claims of people who are not yet ill, but who may later develop asbestos-related illnesses.[3] The decertification addressed the problem that asbestos-related illnesses like mesothelioma (a fatal cancer of the lining of the lung), have a latency period of 20-40 years from the date of exposure.[3]
[edit] Politics
Baron has been an active figure in politics as a prominent fund-raiser for the Democratic Party and fellow trial lawyer, Sen. John Edwards. Baron was the finance chair of Edwards' 2004 presidential campaign before co-chairing the Kerry Victory '04 committee, a joint effort of the Democratic National Committee and the Presidential campaign of John Kerry. Baron gave $1.7 million to the Texas Democratic Trust in the last two years and is also heavily involved in Edwards's 2008 presidential campaign, moving to North Carolina to head up fundraising there.[4]
Baron has joked about the prominence he and other trial lawyers have in the Democratic Party. In a July 2002 speech, he noted a Wall Street Journal editorial that said that "the plaintiffs bar is all but running the Senate." Baron pointed to the editorial and said, "Now I really, strongly disagree with that. Particularly the 'all but.'"[5]
[edit] Controversy
[edit] Asbestos litigation tactics
Baron & Budd have been criticized by attorneys for both plaintiffs and defendants for their role in asbestos litigation in aggressively seeking payment for plaintiffs who have suffered no injury; as a result, many defendants have been bankrupted and seriously injured plaintiffs have been unable to recover.[6]
[edit] The Baron & Budd Script Memo controversy
The Baron & Budd Script Memo controversy is an incident in asbestos litigation where it is alleged that Baron & Budd engaged in subornation of perjury and a cover-up.[7] Though (and because) no attorneys were disciplined or sanctioned over the incident, it is frequently cited by United States civil justice reformers[8] and politicians[9] as an example of ethical problems in the plaintiffs' bar and asbestos litigation. Baron and some academics argue that the memo was the act of a single paralegal, and that it was within the bounds of "zealous representation."[10] However, the Dallas Observer conducted an investigation of the memo, and found that "a number of former Baron & Budd employees say that the information and techniques contained in the memo are widely used, even taught to employees" and that the "memo was not truly an aberration, but a written example of how the product-identification staff works at Baron & Budd."[11][12][13]
[edit] Resignation from Baron & Budd and litigation
In 2002, Baron left Baron & Budd along with his wife, Lisa Blue. The separation from the firm he founded has not been without controversy. Baron sued his former firm for breach of contract; Baron & Budd counterclaimed alleging that Baron and Blue breached contractual, fiduciary and legal obligations to the firm by failing to receive prior consent from Baron & Budd for plans to form a new firm.[14]
[edit] Honors and Accomplishments
- Fred Baron has been honored as a lawyer who helped shape Texas law during the 20th century in Legal Legends: A Century of Texas Law and Lawyering.[15]
- Named as one of the nation's top plaintiff's lawyers by Forbes magazine (2001).[16]
- Named one of Dallas' top lawyers by D Magazine (May 2001 and May 2005).
- In 2001, The University of Texas School of Law endowed a chair in his name.[17]
- Past president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA);
- A member of the Board of Governors of ATLA, as Chairman of the Public Affairs Committee on the Board of Governors, and Chairman of its Section on Toxic, Environmental and Pharmaceutical Torts;
- Past president of Trial Lawyers for Public Justice;
- A member of the Board of Directors of The American Constitution Society;
- A member of the American Law Institute, serving on the Products Liability sub-committee;
- Vice-Chairman of the Toxic and Hazardous Substances and Environmental Law Subcommittee for the American Bar Association;
- Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates;
- Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and Dallas Bar Foundation;
- Former member of the Board of Advisors to the Toxic Law Reporter (B.N.A.);
- Former Trustee for the Civil Justice Foundation;
- Member of the Advisory Board of Texas Citizen Action;
- Director of the Texas Law Review Association;
- Director of the Irving Selikoff Foundation (Charitable Trust);
- Trustee of the Manville Victims Special Trust (Charitable Trust);
- Trustee of the Democratic National Committee;
- On the Texas Advisory Board of the Environmental Defense Fund.
[edit] External links
- Baron & Budd
- Columbia Journalism Review "Baring Baron."
- San Antonio Express News column - "City climbs into legal/lucre bed with Democratic trial lawyers"
[edit] References
- ^ Association of Trial Lawyers of America
- ^ Samuel Issacharoff, ‘‘Shocked’’: Mass Torts and Aggregate Asbestos Litigation After Amchem and Ortiz, 80 Tex. L. Rev. 1925, 1930 (2002).
- ^ a b Amchem Products, Inc. et al., v. George Windsor et al
- ^ Democratic effort helped by lawyer's $1.7 million, Austin American-Statesman, 12 Nov. 2006
- ^ John Fund, "Have You Registered to Sue?", Wall Street Journal, 6 Nov. 2002
- ^ Thomas Korosec, "Enough to Make You Sick", Dallas Observer, 26 Sep 2002
- ^ Lester Brickman, "On the Theory Class’s Theories of Asbestos Litigation: The Disconnect Between Scholarship and Reality", 31 Pepperdine L. Rev. 33 (2004).
- ^ Walter Olson, "Thanks for the Memories", Reason (June 1998)
- ^ Additional View of Senator Kyl, Senate Report No. 108-118 at pp. 81-184 (21 Jul. 2003) (reprinting memo in full).
- ^ W. William Hodes, The Professional Duty To Horseshed Witnesses—Zealously, Within The Bounds Of the Law, 30 TEX. TECH L. REV. 1343 (1999); Charles Silver, Preliminary Thoughts on the Economics of Witness Preparation, 30 TEX. TECH L. REV. 1383, 1398-1401 (1999)
- ^ Julie Lyons, Patrick Williams, Thomas Korosec, and Christine Biederman, "Toxic Justice", 13 Aug. 1998
- ^ Thomas Korosec, "Homefryin' with Fred Baron", Dallas Observer, 29 March 2001
- ^ Julie Lyons, The Control Freak, Dallas Observer, 13 Aug. 1998.
- ^ Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, Baron & Budd Alleges Ex-Shareholders Breached Duties by Planning Vioxx Venture With Lanier, Texas Lawyer, 11 Dec 2006
- ^ Texas Lawyer commemorative publication, June 2000
- ^ Mary Ann Thomas and Ramesh Santanam 2002. "Lawsuit against ARCO, BWXT rolls on". Valley News Dispatch.
- ^ "Chair established to honor Frederick M. Baron, '71" (2001)
