Laura J. Baughman Esq.

Laura Baughman manages the Baron & Budd’s Pharmaceutical Litigation Group representing individuals and public entities. Ms. Baughman represented seven public entities (the states of Mississippi, West Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Maryland, New Mexico and Utah) against GlaxoSmithKline regarding misrepresentations made in the marketing of the diabetes drug Avandia. This litigation recently settled for over $170 million. Currently, Laura represents individual personal injury and wrongful death victims and public entities regarding harm caused by Granuflo, used during dialysis. Ms. Baughman is also actively working on Risperdal, Lipitor and Transvaginal Mesh litigation.

As managing shareholder of the firm’s Qui Tam Litigation Group, Ms. Baughman focuses on strategies to ferret out and litigate against those who have perpetrated fraud against the government. Sometimes called “whistleblower” cases, Laura’s team handles a variety of cases in which the government has been defrauded of Medicare, Medicaid, defense and other monies.

When Laura was a small child living in New Jersey, there was an outbreak of childhood leukemia in her neighborhood. Laura was hospitalized at the age of five. Her parents were told that she, too, had leukemia. It turned out that Laura did not have the disease. The children in her neighborhood had been sickened from drinking water contaminated by a company which had dumped toxic waste onto the ground nearby. Laura made a full recovery, but her parents were told that many of the stricken children would not live past their 20th birthdays. The experience left an indelible impression. From the time she was old enough to understand what had happened, Laura wanted to become a lawyer so that she could help put a stop to the poisoning of people and natural resources by unscrupulous businesses.

Now Ms. Baughman leads the firm’s work in California involving Proposition 65 litigation. She served as co-lead counsel in a California Proposition 65 water contamination case that required several major oil companies to clean up groundwater that had been contaminated by gasoline leaking from storage tanks and to take steps to prevent similar leaks in the future. The settlement was valued at $107 million. Ms. Baughman settled another Proposition 65 case which required the retrofitting of school buses with devices to reduce diesel engine exhaust emissions, a known human carcinogen. Laura is currently counsel on a case seeking to require the disclosure of elevated levels of lead in certain brands of children’s fruit juice, canned fruits and baby food.

In addition to her legal advocacy, Ms. Baughman has a long history of community service. She has represented several clients on a pro bono basis through the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program and over the years has served as co-chair of several committees for Attorneys Serving the Community. Formerly a member of the Dallas Bar Association’s Community Involvement Committee, Laura was chair of the group’s “Lawyers Have Heart” 5-K run benefiting the American Heart Association. While in law school, Laura served as vice president of Texas Law Fellowships, a non-profit public interest organization.

When she is not at work, Laura most enjoys spending time with her two daughters, nine and twelve, and attending their sporting events. Instilling in her girls the value of engaging in a noble cause is a core principle of Laura’s parenting philosophy. Laura leads by example in “Protecting What’s Right®”.

Texas
California
New York
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
United States District Court, Central & Eastern Districts of California

University of Texas School of Law (J.D., with honors, 1994)
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art (M.E. 1992, B.S. 1990)

Best Lawyers in Dallas under 40, D Magazine, 2006
Texas Super Lawyer (Thompson Reuters, 2004-2005)
Rising Star of Texas Law (Thompson Reuters, 2004)
AV Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell

American Association for Justice
Public Justice Foundation
Dallas Trial Lawyers Association
American Bar Association
Environmental Law Section, State Bar of Texas
Attorneys Serving the Community

• Speaker, “The Public Disclosure Bar in a Nutshell,” American Association for Justice 2011 Annual Convention, presented to Qui Tam Litigation Group, July 13, 2011
• Speaker, “The ABCs of IRS Whistleblower Fraud Cases,” American Association for Justice 2010 Annual Convention. July 14, 2010.
• Panelist, “Should You Just Sit There? Active Participation in the Defense Deposition,” Association of Trial Lawyers of America 2004 Winter Convention, February 14, 2004
• Panelist, “Discharge Cases: Proposition 65’s Sleeping Giant?” Prop 65 News Conference and Seminar, March 29, 2004
• Faculty member, National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) Southern Deposition Program, May 20 – 21, 2004

Note, “Countervailing Environmental Subsidies: a Solution to the Environmental Inequities of the North American Free Trade Agreement,” 29 Texas International Law Journal 1996.