BARBARA M. BARRON

BARBARA BARRON received her B.A. in economics (magna cum laude with honors) from Barnard College, her M.B.A. from Columbia University, and her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1977. She was admitted to the Texas Bar in 1977 and the District of Columbia Bar in 1980. She has been certified as a mediator in Texas, and she has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, all four United States District Courts for the State of Texas, and the United States Tax Court. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the American Bar Association, the Austin Bar Association, the Federal Communications Bar, and the Commercial Law League of America.

Ms. Barron is the founder and current President of Barron & Newburger, P.C. In 1984, she served as an adjunct professor of business law at the University of Texas School of Business. She has also served as a lecturer at educational programs both in Texas and nationally, addressing issues in creditor's rights and bankruptcy law, and she is the co-author of M. Newburger and B. Barron, Fair Debt Collection Practices: Federal and State Laws and Regulations (Sheshunoff & Pratt) and the three previous versions of that treatise. Her other publications include:(i) co-editorship of the Handbook of Consumer Bankruptcy Essentials prepared in conjunction with the State Bar of Texas’s Advanced Consumer Bankruptcy Course (2000 and 2001), (ii) co-editorship of Bankruptcy Desk Reference for Non-Bankruptcy Practitioners prepared for the State Bar’s 2001-2002 Collections Seminar, and co-editorship of the Bankruptcy Reference Manual and Forms Guide prepared as the Course Books for the State Bar of Texas’s Nuts & Bolts of Bankruptcy (courses which she also co-directed with Stephen Sather); (iii) co-authorship with Stephen Sather of Highlights of BAPCA 2005 Changes to the Consumer Provisions of Title 11, published in the November 2005 of the Commercial Law League of America Bulletin; and (iv) co-authorship with Stephen Sather of Trade Creditor and Small Business Protections under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, published in the December 2005 issue of the Texas Bar Journal. She serves on the Editorial Committee of the Texas Collections Manual published by the State Bar of Texas and will be the principal author of the bankruptcy chapter of that publication.

A substantial portion of Ms. Barron's practice relates to bankruptcy and insolvency, FDCPA law, commercial litigation, and transactional matters.^* She has worked with clients in effecting out-of-court workouts and has represented debtors, creditors, trustees, and creditors' committees in bankruptcy proceedings throughout the State of Texas. She has also served both as a state court receiver and as a Chapter 11 Trustee. Ms. Barron has served on the Bankruptcy Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, the Executive Council of the Travis County Bankruptcy Bar, and the Executive Council of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Section of the Commercial Law League of America. She is currently her second term as President of the Bankruptcy Section of the Austin Bar Association, and she serves on the Board of that organization. She was an organizer of the Insolvency Support Group in Austin, one of the first groups of its kind in the United States and was instrumental in establishing the Debt Counseling Clinic to assist the Legal Aid Society of Central Texas.

For over twenty years Ms. Barron has been actively involved in charitable and pro bono matters in the Austin area. She has chaired the Board of Jewish Family Services of Austin and the Business Advisory Council of Community Options. She has served for many years on the Metropolitan Board of the YMCA of Austin and currently serves as Chair of its Program Services Branch. Ms. Barron serves on the Fee Dispute Resolution Committee of the Austin Bar Association, mediating fee disputes between lawyers and their former clients at no cost to either party, and she has chaired the Diversity Task Force of the Commercial Law League of America.

^*Not certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.