Eric Barnum, ’94, constantly understood he wished to make a distinction on the planet. He simply wasn’t sure how to tackle it. As he pictured the future, there were 3 instructions he might take: medication, the ministry, or the law. He didn’t have the clinical disposition for medication or the personality for the ministry, however he saw law as an extremely effective tool that might be utilized to fix a few of the oppressions on the planet.
McGeorge School of Law offered Barnum with the entrance through which he might attain that dream. He picked McGeorge due to the fact that of the exceptional curriculum, the high bar passage rate and due to the fact that he would get the high caliber legal training required to be a difference-maker. While there, he operated at the law school’s Neighborhood Legal Provider Center representing the indigent, was president of the Black Law Trainees Association, aided with citizen registration drives and rested on the board of the National Black Law Trainees Association as Western Area Director.
After graduation, Barnum was the founding president of the McGeorge Black Alumni Association and the very first Chair of the McGeorge Alumni Variety Board He served on the Board of Directors of the McGeorge Alumni Association from 2005 to 2012 and the Dean’s Council from 2019 to today day. In 2021 the Eric and Daisy Barnum Scholarship Fund was established to supply monetary help to McGeorge trainees from traditionally underrepresented neighborhoods.
As a management-side labor and work lawyer, Barnum invests his days ensuring that everybody who is utilized by among his customers delights in an office that is reasonable, fair, and devoid of harassment and all types of discrimination. For his practice, Barnum has actually amassed a myriad of acknowledgments, consisting of Chambers U.S.A., The Legal 500 United States, The Very Best Attorneys in America ®, Lawdragon 500 Leading Business Work Attorney ®, Minority Corporate Counsel Association Exceptional Outdoors Counsel, and Georgia “Super Legal Representative.”
Beyond the workplace, as an individual of faith, Barnum continues to return to our neighborhoods, whether it be through his service on the Board of Stewards at Turner Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Marietta, GA; the Board of Directors of Neighborhoods in Schools of Atlanta; the Corporate Board of Directors of the Boys and Woman Club of City Atlanta; as a Southeast Regional Board Member of the Anti-Defamation League; a member of the 100 Black Guy of Atlanta or a member of his cherished Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. “Leveling the playing field for kids and neighborhoods who do not have the chances that I had actually has actually constantly been really essential to me.” he states. “There are individuals who have it actually rough. I should do something with my law degree. It’s how I was raised.”
Barnum comprehends that without the strong structure of assistance from his better half Daisy and child Emanuel, it would be challenging, if not difficult, to do all that he does, and for that he is permanently grateful.
As a law trainee, Barnum pictured himself as the next excellent civil liberties legal representative or Thurgood Marshall discussing cases before the Supreme Court. One may argue that he has had an even higher effect on his neighborhood, one matter at a time.
Throughout 2024, the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law will commemorate members of its huge alumni network in honor of the school’s 100-year anniversary. This post is the very first in a series highlighting 100 extraordinary McGeorge School of Law alumni.
Stay tuned for more article as we commemorate the law school’s centennial anniversary.