General Counsel

Ms. Barnes is the General Counsel for the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles Director, Judge Charles A. Graddick.

She previously served as General Counsel for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency under Secretary Hal Taylor. Ms. Barnes represents the Bureau on the Alabama Justice Information Commission and is a Member of Alabama Sentencing Standards Advisory Committee. She is a member of Alabama Leadership Initiative – Class III and the Hugh Maddox Inn of Court.

Ms. Barnes served as Chairperson for Alabama’s Victim Notification Implementation Task Force from 2011-2019. She previously served the Board of Pardons and Paroles as Chief Legal Counsel from 2014-2018, helping lead Alabama’s 2015 prison reform implementation efforts. Ms. Barnes clerked for Judge R. David Proctor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama and the Office of the Attorney General: Violent Crimes and General Civil and Administrative Law Divisions.

Ms. Barnes earned her B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her J.D. from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University where she served on the Trial Advocacy Board and as Senior Associate Editor of the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.