Edwards' Money Man Also Has Ties to Biden

When newly minted vice presidential pick Joe Biden arrives in Denver, he will be greeted by one of his most generous supporters, trial lawyer Fred Baron.

Baron, the wealthy Dallas founder of the Baron & Budd law firm, headed the nation's trial lawyers association while Biden chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee. And before Baron sold his firm in 2002, lawyers there donated $108,100 to the Delaware senator, making the firm one of his most prolific contributors, according to a review by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Baron said this afternoon that he is thrilled with Sen. Barack Obama's choice of running mate.

"He is up there to help people, and that to me is the principal criterion," Baron said in an interview. "Joe Biden and I see eye to eye on the way this country should be run."

Baron said he is heading to Denver tomorrow. He said he does not want his efforts on behalf of Edwards and Hunter to be misunderstood, or to be a distraction.

"I didn't do anything that was illegal. I just had bad information," he said. "If I had known what had been going on, it would have been handled differently."

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. Fred Baron sold his interest in Baron & Budd and retired from the firm in December 2002. His former 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.

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.'"

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.

The Baron & Budd asbestos memo is alleged to have been a subornation of perjury and a cover-up. It is cited by United States civil justice reformers and politicians 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." 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."

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The Baron & Budd asbestos memo is a memo in asbestos litigation where it is alleged a prominent plaintiffs' firm engaged in subornation of perjury and a cover-up. The Texas State Bar Association grievance committee dismissed complaints regarding the memo. It is cited by United States civil justice reformers and politicians as an example of ethical problems in the plaintiffs' bar. Accusations about the memo have also arisen in the context of Fred Baron's relationship with former presidential candidate John Edwards.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl, a tort reform advocate, called the memo a "a startling insight into how asbestos claims are created"; in a Senate Report, Kyl writes that the memo:

gives clients detailed instructions how to credibly testify that they worked with particular asbestos products. The memo also instructs clients to assert particular things that will increase the value of their claim, without regard to whether those things are true. The memo even informs clients that a defense attorney will have no way of knowing whether they are lying about their exposure to particular asbestos products.

Clients were also instructed by the memo to deny that they ever saw warning labels on product packages. The memo was so detailed and comprehensive that Eugene Cook, a former Texas Supreme Court Justice, said at the time that "With this document, you could almost go down the street, get a homeless person, spend a couple of hours with him, and he would be prepared to testify."

Judge John McClellan Marshall, who first learned of the memo from defense counsel in the case where it was produced, called the memo "scandalous to the community as well as to the profession," and "an affront to the integrity of the judicial system," and referred it to a grand jury for possible prosecution and to a state bar grievance committee. In response to the affidavits from Baron & Budd's experts, the state bar grievance committee dismissed the charges. The Dallas Observer reports that because of "politics", the local DA dropped it, requiring the prosecution to be transferred to the Clinton Administration in 1998. Baron & Budd and Association of Trial Lawyers of America made political contributions to the Congressional campaign of the U.S. Attorney's wife, Regina Montoya, and Paul Coggins recused himself from the case as a result; the Dallas Observer quotes critics who say that the Democratic administration soft-pedaled the case, which was never investigated.

Judge Marshall had been re-elected twice without opposition in 1992 and 1996, but in 2000, Baron & Budd successfully targeted Judge Marshall for defeat; the Dallas Observer reports a lawyer close to the case saying that "No judge in Dallas will cross Baron & Budd after what happened in that election. They are scared to death." Local Texas judges blocked civil discovery into the production and use of the memo. Attorneys for private clients who attempted to investigate the memo found that both they and their clients were targeted heavily by Baron & Budd. The defendants agreed to replace the attorneys who had investigated Baron & Budd with new attorneys who would not pursue the matter further.[3] And the Dallas Observer reported that the firm responded to its reporting with "a pattern of intimidation and paranoia such as the Observer has never seen before."

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.

The nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics found that the law firm headed by Texas trial attorney Fred Baron has contributed $108,000 to Biden over the years. Baron, who in the ‘08 campaign was John Edwards’ national finance committee chairman, was in the news recently when it was revealed that he paid to help Edwards’ paramour, Rielle Hunter, relocate to Santa Barbara.

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The industries that have given the most to Biden during his career include lawyers/law firms ($6.6 million), real estate ($1.3 million) and retirees ($1 million). Biden is among the top 10 members of Congress to receive money from lawyers and law firms since the 1990 election cycle and among the top 20 to collect contributions from the real estate industry.

His largest contributor over time has been credit card giant MBNA Corp. ($214,100), which, despite being acquired by Bank of America a few years ago, remains atop the list of Biden’s major contributors. As an industry, finance and credit companies have contributed nearly $300,000 to Biden in his career, making them his 12th most generous industry. Obama has vowed to target credit card companies as president, setting up a five-star rating system so consumers know the risk involved with various credit cards and establishing a bill of rights so consumers aren’t exploited by unfair practices.

* Incidentally, one of Biden’s top donors, law firm Baron & Budd, was in the news recently because its founder, trial lawyer Fred Baron, acknowledged paying for former presidential candidate John Edwards’s mistress to re-locate. Baron & Budd employees have given Biden $108,100 during his career. A number of other plaintiff firms are among Biden’s top contributors.

* Biden has not spent any of his own money on his campaigns—but then again, it doesn’t seem that he really has the personal finances to do so anyway, at least not compared to other members of Congress. In 2006, Biden was among the poorest members of Congress. He may have been in debt by as much as $302,980 or worth as little as $278,000 (in their annual personal financial disclosures, lawmakers report the value of their assets in ranges). In 2007, his finances didn’t get any better. Last year he could have been in debt by as much as $320,980 or worth as little as $215,900. At the very least, this reduces the chance that his assets will pose significant conflicts of interest (or the appearance of conflict).

* Obama has been outspoken about contributions from lobbyists (Biden’s son is a lobbyist), vowing not to accept any contributions from them. Biden doesn’t seem to have quite the same view. The lobbying industry has given him $344,400 since 1997, making lobbyists his 10th largest contributing industry. This election cycle he’s received $43,000 more than the average $81,700 that lobbyists have given senators. One of Biden’s top 20 most generous contributors over time, in fact, is lobbying firm Blank Rome LLP, whose employees have given him $68,200.

* The oil and gas industry has also come under fire this election cycle, with gas prices reaching a record high and consumers putting pressure on Congress to pass energy legislation and deliver relief. Biden blasted President Bush’s plan to open the coasts to offshore drilling, which would have a direct impact on Biden’s constituents in Delaware. Biden has collected a total of about $80,000 since 1997 from oil and gas companies, far less than Obama’s $470,800, despite being in the Senate 32 years longer (the presidential race boosted Obama’s funds from all industries).

When Obama visited for the first time this year, he brought with him one of Biden’s top advisers. Most recently, Biden was invited by Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili to assess the situation after the country was invaded by Russia. Since 2005, private interests have paid a total of $43,100 for Biden and his staffers to take trips around the world. These groups have paid for the senator and aides to travel to Thailand, Belgium, Germany and Serbia for workshops and fact-finding. Biden’s most expensive sponsored trip cost $10,800, billed to ABC News for an appearance on the news program “This Week.”

* Biden’s leadership PAC, “Unite Our States,” has raised $2.4 million over the last two election cycles and given away 9 percent of that to other candidates—a low figure that often indicates the money is instead helping to “test the waters” for higher offices. This year he’s given eight House candidates $1,000 each and seven Senate candidates $5,000, including Virginia Senate candidate Mark Warner, whom Obama picked to deliver the keynote address at the party’s national convention next week.

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