Barry C. Barnett

You and Me 

This profile tells you about me. But guess what? I want to know about you.

Yes, you. I have to understand you, your situation, and your goals before I can help you solve your problem.
You will have to educate me.

Consider as you read this whether I sound like someone you can trust. Somebody who will do every honest and ethical thing to help you achieve the best outcome for you. An individual you'll enjoy working with.

A profile tells you only so much about a lawyer. You might not guess from what appears below, for example, that I grew up in Nacogdoches, Texas; that I sang in the All-Region Choir; that I played football in high school and college; or that my dad worked as a roughneck and my mom as a secretary; or that I've worked only at Susman Godfrey since I started practicing more than 25 years ago. 

But bear this in mind: As you get to know a little about me, remember that I need to hear about – and from – you.

What People Say

A client in an oil and gas case we won at trial said my team "presented a rare combination of strong legal intellect, common sense about right and wrong, and credibility in the courtroom".

"In the end it wasn't even close", The Rockdale Reporter noted about a $500 million case that Luminant Generation hired me to handle eight months before the trial in Milam County, Texas.

"Barry Barnett was magnificent in trying this case," General Counsel Rob Walters said.  "We couldn't ask for more able trial counsel."

Who's Who Legal noted that I do "fantastic work for clients."

The Legal 500 wrote that "Barry Barnett has an established reputation both for his legal skills and his ability to ‘empathize with the underdog.'"

And Chambers and Partners called me "key to the firm's reputation for outstanding plaintiffs litigation."

Experience

All kinds of clients have entrusted me with all kinds of cases in all parts of the country -- in cities like Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Memphis, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Washington, DC, and Wilmington, DE, and lots of small towns. The matters included:

• Arbitration: indemnification, purchase and sale of securities, misappropriation of computer software, purchase of majority stake in dental services business, bans on class and aggregate arbitration, breach of services contracts, wrongful termination of electric power purchase agreement, subscriber agreements for airline and electric power customers.
• Antitrust (price-fixing, territorial and customer allocation, monopolization, tying, price discrimination): telecommunications, computer chips (microprocessors and memory chips), cable, commercial explosives, airlines and air travel, vitamins, pharmaceutical distribution, ready-mix concrete, confectionery chocolate.
• Business fraud: electric power generation, patent cross-licensing, lender liability, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, oil and gas, coal mining, telecommunications overcharges.
• Class actions: price-fixing, market allocation, monopolization and attempt to monopolize, ERISA, consumer fraud, securities fraud, pyramid scheme.
• Contracts for goods and services: electric power supply, contract mining, tools, aircraft, freight services, intellectual property and other licensing agreements, distribution agreements, franchises.
• Covenants not to compete or solicit: oncology, food services, payday loans, insurance brokerage, commercial real estate.
• Employee Retirement Income Security Act: breach of duty of care over pension plan investments.
• Environmental: groundwater contamination, emissions controls, power generation, CERCLA liability.
• Fiduciary duties: joint venturers, agents, officers and directors, partners, trustees, special relationships.
• Insurance coverage: officers and directors, business interruption relating to 9/11 and oil field casualty, fiduciary bond, force majeure in construction.
• Lender liability: real estate, oil and gas, improper seizure and sale of collateral.
• Mergers and acquisitions: breaches of agreements to buy and sell majority equity stakes (e.g., cable network, telecommunications gear, restaurant chain), indemnification rights, registration rights, CEO golden parachute.
• Minority shareholders: expulsion of equity owner, majority abuse, voting rights, failure to pay dividends.
• Oil and gas: seismic data, duties to survey and lease, pooling/unitization, oilfield services, lease disputes, operating agreements, short-payment of royalties.
• Partnerships and joint ventures: expulsion of partner, control, distribution of profits, voting rights, dissolution, investment in shale gas play.
• Patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade dress, and trade secrets: seismic data, computer software, Windows operating system, restaurants, publishing, textiles, memory chips, real estate development.
• Private equity: disputes involving portfolio companies, alter ego allegations against sponsor entities, expulsion of firm members, carried interests.
• Securities fraud: microprocessors, dental services, telecommunications gear, real estate, short-swing profits.
• Sexual harassment and discrimination: spying, physical injury, peeping tom.
• Stock purchase and shareholder agreements: cinema chain, medical device maker, dental services.

Cases have ranged from two-party lawsuits to multi-party slugfests and class actions involving millions.

Clients -- and the Other Side

A short list of companies I've had the honor to represent includes these:

• Public companies: Cisco Systems, EMC, ENSCO, AmWINS, Forest Oil, The Shaw Group, Trammell Crow Company, Texas Instruments, and New Century Financial.
• Private companies: ACADIA, All Smiles Dental, BV Energy, Duane Reade, Energy Future Holdings, Gobeli Research, Luminant Generation, Luminant Mining, Mewbourne Oil & Gas, Morris & Dickson Co., Olympia Minerals, Neiman Marcus Group, RainTree Oncology, Swift Cash, TXU Energy, and Wagner & Brown.

Your foes also say something about a law practice. I've gone toe-to-toe with these and others:

• Abbott Labs, Alcatel-Lucent, Alcoa, Anadarko, AT&T, Bank of America, Cadbury, Chick-fil-A, Comcast, Computer Associates, Dow Chemical, du Pont, Eastman Chemical, Hershey, HSBC, ICI, JPMorgan Chase, Korean Airlines, Lower Colorado River Authority, Microsoft, Prudential, Samsung, Schlumberger, Sprint, Visa, Westinghouse.

List of Trials

Nacogdoches High School (Diploma 1977)

Yale University (B.A., Economics and History (honors), magna cum laude, 1981)

Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1984).

Law Clerk to The Honorable Jerre S. Williams, United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (1984-85).

American Law Institute, Elected Member (2007-2013).

The Best Lawyers in America, Bet-the-Company Litigation (2010-2013) and Commercial Litigation (2003-2013).

Center for American and International Law, Trustee (2011-2013)

Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in Antitrust and General Commercial Litigation (2007-13).

College of the State Bar of Texas (2012-2013).

Greenhill School, Trustee (2007-2013).

The Legal 500 U.S. (2007-13) (mass tort and class actions: antitrust).

Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow (2010-2013). 

Martindale-Hubbell AV (highest) rating (1995-2013).

Texas Super Lawyer in Business Litigation, Antitrust Litigation, and Class Action/Mass Torts (2003-2013).

Who's Who Legal: Texas (competition).

• Co-author, "Techniques for Expediting and Streamlining Litigation" for American Bar Association Section of Litigation's second edition of Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts (2005-10).
• Creator and blogger-in-chief, Blawgletter®, which ranks in the top five percent of law blogs on Justia
• Interviews by and articles for NPR's "Marketplace" report, Law Blog of The Wall Street Journal, Texas Lawyer, ABA Journal, business torts "Hot Topics" by the Litigation Section of the Texas Bar Association, Kansas City Business Journal, The Dallas Morning News, Blawg Review, Texas Cable News, D CEO, and Dallas Business Journal.
• Author and speaker at continuing legal education seminars, including "Trying a Class Action" for Litigation Counsel of America, "Antitrust and Class Certification" for Practicing Law Institute; "The Brave New World of Class Certification in Antitrust Cases" for Dallas Bar Association; "Techniques for Expediting and Streamlining Litigation" for the Harris County Civil District Judges Summer Conference; "How to Bust or Follow Through with an Arbitration" for the State Bar of Texas's Advanced Civil Trial Course; "Rule-Making and How It Affects Your Practice" for the State Bar of Texas's Advanced Personal Injury Law Course; "Current Developments in Business Litigation", American Bar Association.

Bar Memberships

State Bar of Texas.

Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States of America.

Bars of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits.

Bars of the United States District Courts for the Northern, Eastern, Southern, and Western Districts of Texas; the District of Arizona; and the District of Colorado.

Professional Associations

American Bar Association; Section of Litigation and Section of Antitrust Law; American Association for Justice; Dallas Bar Association; Houston Bar Association.

Yale Club of Dallas; Harvard Club of Dallas; Yale Club of New York City.

Life Fellow, American Bar Foundation, Texas Bar Foundation, Dallas Bar Foundation, and Houston Bar Foundation.