David Barnes
Undergraduate: University of the South (Sewanee)
Career plan: Clerk, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 2011-12, after which he will join King & Spalding in Atlanta
When David Barnes moves to Washington, D.C., this summer to start a clerkship with Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, he will be spending his second short-term stint in Washington. In 2005, after earning his undergraduate degree at the University of the South (Sewanee), Barnes served a six-month internship in the White House Office of the Public Liaison. "I had written a paper for an environmental science class that I presented at an academic conference," he said. "A fellow Sewanee graduate working in the White House read the paper and invited me to interview for an internship." As a White House intern, Barnes not only gained invaluable insights into the formation and promotion of public policy, but he also met and impressed Pete Delay, CEO of Nashville-based Sherman-Dixie Concrete Industries. When the internship ended, Delay offered Barnes a permanent job with Sherman-Dixie in Nashville.
Barnes spent four years performing due diligence work to support mergers and acquisitions for Sherman-Dixie, a job for which he had an aptitude. He had planned to attend law school after gaining some work experience, and the work he was doing at Sherman-Dixie not only confirmed his interest in studying law, but was also an ideal preparation for legal studies. Barnes was debating the merits of pursuing a J.D. or a four-year J.D./MBA program when Vanderbilt's Law and Business Program caught his eye. "The Law and Business Program offers non-legal core classes in accounting and finance," he said. "You learn how to read financial statements. And when you combine that with the courses in corporations, securities law and secured lending, you graduate with an understanding of the issues that are important to CEOs." The program also had the advantage of allowing Barnes, who had majored in religion and environmental science as an undergraduate, to gain a solid understanding of basic accounting and financing principles while earning his law degree without extending his studies past three years.
Barnes particularly enjoyed the Law and Business Seminar taught by Professors Randall Thomas and Paul Edelman, during which students are required to write five scholarly papers based on current research presented to the class by corporate law scholars from around the world. "It's a fantastic seminar—very writing-intense," he says. Barnes also had the opportunity to work with Professor Thomas as a research assistant on two major papers, and took short courses from Judge Kent Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Wilmington, Delaware, and from Chancellor William Chandler and Vice-Chancellor Leo Strine of the Delaware Court of Chancery. "When I was developing my Law Review note, which focused on the officers and directors of partially government-owned corporations, I talked with Chancellor Chandler for over an hour about my ideas," Barnes said. "I sent him a copy of the draft, and he and his law clerks commented on it and sent it back. Their feedback was really invaluable, and the fact that I had access to them was amazing."
As the Law Review's symposium editor, Barnes worked with authors of papers presented at the Law and Business Program's 2010 symposium on executive compensation, including the keynote speaker, Kenneth Feinberg, who was then serving as the Obama administration's Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, charged with setting the salaries of executives at companies rescued by the federal government after the 2008 financial meltdown.
During two summers working at law firms as an associate, Barnes discovered his business acumen attracted favorable attention. "When senior attorneys realize you can read a financial statement and have a business background, they seek you out, because when you look at the facts of the case, you may have a business problem with a legal solution or a legal problem with a business solution," he said.
Barnes, who won the 2011 Founders Medal, will join King & Spalding in Atlanta as an associate after his clerkship on the D.C. Circuit.
David Barnes
Class of 2011
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- Clerk, Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, 2011-12 term