Russell W. Budd is a major force in the world of plaintiff’s attorneys, having devoted his three decade career to championing the rights of people and communities who have been harmed. Currently, Budd presides over one of the nation’s largest plaintiff’s firms, Baron and Budd, PC.

Budd, a shareholder of Baron & Budd since 1985 and president and managing shareholder since 2002, has expanded the firm from its cornerstone asbestos practice to a national firm capable of tackling the biggest defendants in areas as diverse as water contamination, qui tam, California Proposition 65 violations, pharmaceutical injuries, chinese drywall, insurance claims, consumer fraud, securities fraud and the Gulf Oil Spill.

Over the last decade, Budd has played significant roles in asbestos litigation on a national level. As chair and member of several asbestos creditors’ bankruptcy committees, Budd successfully resolved over 100,000 victims’ claims with some of Wall Street’s biggest companies. Budd was the chief negotiator of a $4 billion national settlement with Halliburton that established a trust fund to protect present and future asbestos victims throughout the United States - the largest asbestos trust fund of its kind anywhere in the world. He was on the committee that negotiated a $3.9 billion settlement with United States Gypsum to benefit asbestos claimants. And, he participated in negotiations that led W.R. Grace to agree to fund a bankruptcy trust on behalf of asbestos claimants with nearly $3 billion in cash and stock equity.

Under Budd’s direction, Baron & Budd donated $3 million to the International Pleural Mesothelioma Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to research curative therapy for Mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. The firm has also given generously to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, Lung Cancer Alliance and to other asbestos awareness advocacy organizations. Budd currently serves on the Foundation Board of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).

On July 13, 2010, Budd was awarded the prestigious Harry M. Philo Award Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from the American Association for Justice (AAJ) at the organization’s annual conference in Vancouver, BC. The award was presented in recognition of his dedicated and consistent leadership in protecting the rights of individuals through the civil-justice system. In 2007, he earned the prestigious Wiedemann Wysocki National Finance Council Award from the American Association for Justice, an award honoring attorneys for their commitment to the legal profession and their efforts to improve the civil justice system.

Under Budd’s leadership, Baron & Budd has won numerous awards. The firm was recently named by National Law Journal’s to its “Hot List” of exemplary plaintiffs’ firms in the United States and has been included in the Hot List six of the eight years since the award's inception.