Steve Wolens and Gary Cruciani left Dallas-based plaintiffs firm Baron & Budd to become partners in the Dallas office of litigation boutique Diamond McCarthy Taylor Finley & Lee on May 7.
Allan Diamond, Diamond McCarthy's Houston-based managing partner, says the addition of Cruciani helps beef up the firm's commercial litigation strength and Wolens, who did a lot of plaintiffs asbestos work at Baron & Budd, is expanding his practice into the commercial area.
Wolens says he and Cruciani brought clients including the city of San Antonio, which they represent in City of San Antonio, Texas v. Hotels.com L.P., et al., a class action filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
In 1991, Cruciani was one of the partners who founded McKool Smith, but he left the firm in May 2006 to join Baron & Budd. He says he and Wolens hit it off with lawyers at Diamond McCarthy.
"Diamond McCarthy is, I think, where McKool Smith was a few years back . . . a little more of an entrepreneurial type of opportunity," Cruciani says.
The departures of Wolens and Cruciani came after a number of lawyers and staff left Baron & Budd in a March restructuring.
Wolens declines to discuss the circumstances of his departure other than to say, "There were changes at Baron & Budd . . . and so I made a change." He says, "I've made my peace with the firm, and I'm speaking about my future at Diamond McCarthy and not my past at Baron & Budd."
Cruciani also declines to discuss Baron & Budd, but he says he was not asked to leave.
Russell Budd, managing partner of Baron & Budd, says, "Steve and Gary are both excellent lawyers, and we are certain their success will continue at their new firm."
Wolens, a former state legislator who had practiced at Baron & Budd for nearly 20 years, says he and Cruciani talked to a number of Texas firms but chose Diamond McCarthy because it's young and exciting. Wolens declines to identify the other firms.
Diamond says his firm, which has 35 lawyers in offices in Dallas, Houston and Austin, is in a growth mode.
