Manassas Office Lisa Barnett has been a trial lawyer for 28 years. She has focused her practice on medical malpractice, nursing home neglect and abuse, and complex injury cases involving serious injury or death. Lisa has represented both plaintiffs and defendants, giving her a unique and invaluable perspective that allows her to better represent her clients.
When Lisa is not practicing law, she is a voracious reader. She was an English major in college and loves literature. She reads two or three books weekly, often staying up late to read her favorite contemporary thrillers. She is also a lover of yard games. Recently, her family rented a house to play cornhole, badminton, and croquet. Lisa and her family have a female golden retriever named Charlie. She said Charlie got a boy’s name because her sons wanted a boy dog but got a girl!
When Lisa was in high school, she joined the debate team. After winning her first competition, arguing passionately in support of something, she knew being a trial lawyer was her future. After graduating from the University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law, Lisa clerked for The Honorable J. Howe Brown of the Fairfax County Circuit Court. She then entered private practice as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer with R. Craig Jennings at the insurance defense firm Slenker, Brandt, Jennings, and Johnston. While at Slenker, Brandt, Lisa authored, argued and won two cases at the Virginia Supreme Court. Lisa then became in-house counsel for State Farm Insurance where she was solely responsible for managing a high-volume trial practice. In her three years with State Farm, she served as lead counsel in over twenty jury trials.
In 2002, Lisa’s former partner at SBJJ, Tara McCarthy, asked Lisa to join her new boutique medical malpractice defense firm. While at McCarthy, Massey and Mitchell, Lisa represented and defended physicians and hospitals throughout Virginia. She learned how doctors and hospitals work, as well as how their attorneys and claims adjusters assess claims against them, just as she did while serving as in-house counsel for State Farm. While this experience was invaluable, Lisa returned to her first passion, a plaintiff’s personal injury practice with Regan Zambri & Long in Washington D.C. where she had primary responsibility for a significant medical malpractice caseload in both Virginia and D.C. State and Federal courts. In 2005, Lisa obtained her Board Certification in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Board Certification is achieved through examination and based on the number of jury trials handled as lead counsel, as well as the number of expert witness depositions taken and defended, etc. While at RZL, Lisa handled multiple cases that resulted in multi-million-dollar settlements.
Since 2010, Lisa has continued to dedicate her practice to representing patients and their families in catastrophic injury cases. “Families and their loved ones need someone who is competent, knowledgeable, caring and passionate to provide them with the best possible representation during one of their most trying times. I help them navigate the process to find justice.” Lisa expanded her practice to handle long term care (nursing home abuse) cases and birth injury fund cases. Lisa is actively involved in the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA) where she served as Vice-Chair and Chair of VTLA’s Long-Term Care Section and was a member of the Board of Governors for 2020-2021. Lisa is a member of the Virginia Bar and District of Columbia Bar.