Russell Budd

Russell W. Budd is president and managing shareholder of Baron & Budd, P.C., the plaintiffs’ firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. With more than 45 years in practice, he represents people and public entities harmed by corporate misconduct in asbestos and mesothelioma claims, pharmaceutical cases, consumer and banking class actions, environmental contamination and the national opioid litigation.

Budd became a shareholder at the firm in 1985 and has led it as president since 2002. Beginning in the 1980s he represented asbestos victims nationwide, and in the early 2000s he was appointed by U.S. Trustees to creditors’ committees in numerous asbestos manufacturer bankruptcies. He was a chief negotiator in the Halliburton bankruptcy, which produced a $4 billion settlement, and helped negotiate settlements with United States Gypsum and W.R. Grace that funded asbestos trusts. He continues to sit on the trust advisory committees of more than a dozen asbestos trusts.

In the opioid litigation, Judge Dan Aaron Polster of the Northern District of Ohio appointed Budd to the Plaintiffs’ Settlement Negotiation Team in MDL 2804, a group credited with negotiating more than $46 billion in settlements. He also represented New Mexico, negotiating $538 million in opioid settlements and supervising a seven-week trial that ended in a $500 million settlement with Walgreens. His other negotiated results include overdraft settlements with JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America and a multistate Avandia settlement with GlaxoSmithKline.

Budd holds a law degree from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Trinity University. The American Association for Justice has honored him with its Harry M. Philo Trial Lawyer of the Year Award and its Steven J. Sharp Public Service Award. With his wife, Dorothy, he endowed The Budd Center for Involving Communities in Education at Southern Methodist University and The Budd Innocence Center at the University of Texas School of Law.