Legal News

Remembering Fred Baron, Pioneering Lawyer

By Nathan Koppel

By now many of you have probably heard that Fred Baron, the legendary trial lawyer, died yesterday due to complications from cancer. Baron pioneered asbestos and mass tort litigation in the 1970s, building a Dallas law firm, Baron & Budd, which once ranked among the most powerful plaintiffs firms in the country.

This morning we spent some time calling around to get impressions of Baron from those who knew him and his work. “Fred was one of the pioneers in asbestos litigation,” says plaintiffs lawyer Joe Rice, a kingpin tobacco lawyer at Motley Rice. “Asbestos was the first tort to become a national mass tort, and the roadmap those lawyers created will be with us forever.”

Baron later branched out into other toxic torts, representing a wide swath of plaintiffs, from Arizona to Costa Rica, who were exposed to various contaminants.

Big business, of course, was not among Baron’s fans. “Fred Baron was an innovator with respect to mass litigation,” says Darren McKinney, a spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association. “Whether that’s a good thing, history will have to decide.”

He amassed a fortune, which he lavished on the Democratic party. He was a top advisor to John Edwards in both his 2004 and 2008 presidential runs. Near the end of his life, Baron got dragged into the scandal involving Edwards’s relationship with Rielle Hunter. Baron helped move Hunter away from North Carolina.

Back in August, Brent Rosenthal, of counsel at Baron & Budd, told the Law Blog that Baron’s loyalty always stood out. “What’s funny,” said Rosenthal, “is that he’s got a personality that’s sometimes intimidating, sometimes a little manipulative. He could be critical and very demanding. It was stressful working for Fred as long as I did because his standards were very high and like any successful man or woman he is intolerant of anything less than getting the job done. But, at the same time, if he’s convinced that you’re making a sincere effort, he’s undyingly loyal.”

Recently Baron’s son, Andrew, made a plea with the CEO of Biogen to let his father use one of its drugs, Tysabri, to try to treat his cancer. The FDA later granted approval for Baron to use the drug.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 31, 2008 (boomark / email).