Baron & Budd Shareholder Scott Summy Receives Distinguished Alumni Honor from Texas Tech University Law School

Summy was recognized for his remarkable legal career with decades of dedicated service to protecting the environment.

Baron & Budd is pleased to announce that shareholder and leader of the Environmental Litigation Group, Scott Summy, was honored by his alma mater Texas Tech University Law School with the prestigious Distinguished Alumni Award.

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Scott Summy, Shareholder (Photo: Business Wire)

The award was presented over the weekend at the university’s 20th Annual Law School Scholarship Gala at the Overton Hotel and Conference Center in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday, March 2, 2024. The award recognizes an alumnus who has made significant contributions to the bench, bar, or community, and whose accomplishments and careers have brought credit to the law school and to the legal profession as a whole.

Glenn West, a fellow alumnus of Tarleton State University and a member of the Texas Tech Law School Foundation Board, recommended Summy for the Distinguished Alumni Award. In his letter, he wrote, "This award recognizes an ‘alumnus whose accomplishments and career have brought credit to the law school and to the legal profession as a whole.’ Scott has done that more than most."

Known as “The Water Lawyer,” Summy has fought numerous water contamination wars with some of the largest corporations in the world recovering billions on behalf of public water providers. With an impressive record of holding corporations accountable when their practices harm the public, Summy is an unquestioned leader and trailblazer in the fight against environmental contamination representing clients in some of the most high-profile cases.

Last year alone, Summy was co-lead counsel in the record $12.5 billion nationwide class settlement with 3M, the largest drinking water contamination settlement in U.S. history. The lawsuit accused 3M and other companies of manufacturing and selling products that contained the man-made chemicals called PFAS despite knowing of their potentially harmful effects. PFAS chemicals spread rapidly in the environment and have been linked to significant human health issues.

He also obtained a $1.185 billion nationwide class settlement and negotiated the complex settlement structure on behalf of public water providers against DuPont and other manufacturers for PFAS contamination in drinking water supplies. Recently, he also used his expertise to manage the resolution of the $648 million nationwide PCB class settlement against Monsanto reached in late 2022. This was the first case in U.S. history to hold a manufacturer liable for stormwater contamination.

Summy held a leadership role in the litigation arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico where he played a critical role in negotiating a settlement and claim procedure for the tens of thousands of individuals, businesses, and governmental entities injured by the oil spill. To date, the value of this settlement is estimated to exceed $14 billion. He also represented hundreds of businesses with claims against BP and has recovered more than $100 million on behalf of these clients.

Summy has dedicated his career to protecting the environment and he continues to take the lead in environmental tort litigation as the fight for clean water never stops and there is always work to be done.

About Baron & Budd, P.C.

With more than 40 years of experience, Baron & Budd has the expertise and resources to handle complex litigation throughout the United States. As a law firm that takes pride in remaining at the forefront of litigation, Baron & Budd has spearheaded many significant cases for hundreds of public entities and tens of thousands of individuals. Since the firm was founded in 1977, Baron & Budd has achieved substantial national acclaim for its work on cutting-edge litigation, trying hundreds of cases to verdict and settling tens of thousands of cases in areas of litigation as diverse and significant as dangerous and highly addictive pharmaceuticals, defective medical devices, asbestos and mesothelioma, wildfires, environmental contamination, fraudulent banking practices, e-cigarettes, motor vehicles, federal whistleblower cases, and other consumer fraud issues.

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