Hershell Barnes

Hershell Barnes is the senior shareholder of Key Harrington & Barnes, P.C. His principal area of practice includes employment and traditional labor law. He has forty years of experience representing local, national, and international businesses in employment-related matters. He also routinely represents employers in union avoidance training, union election campaigns, negotiation of collective bargaining agreements, defense of unfair labor practice charges/complaints, strikes, and labor arbitration.

A native of Dublin, Texas, Mr. Barnes graduated with honors from Texas Tech University in 1967, and earned his law degree with honors from Texas Tech University in 1970. Hershell has been board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization as a labor and employment law specialist since 1975. He works, writes, and speaks widely for employers and industry groups regarding labor and employment law, emphasizing proactive employment practices geared toward avoiding union organization, meeting the positive employee treatment goals of the contemporary employer, and, where necessary, dealing with labor unions to ensure, to the extent possible, that the local or international union is not an impediment to business goals and objectives. He also represents employers in litigation and litigation avoidance in areas such as compliance with the anti-discrimination in employment statutes and wage hour matters.

For over twenty years, Mr. Barnes has moderated the "Personnel Law Update" sponsored by the Council on Education in Management conducted within Texas in Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Lubbock, and Austin and also serves as a frequent speaker for the group. He has served as the moderator and speaker for numerous employment law seminars sponsored by the Dallas, Fort Worth, and The Woodlands (Houston, Texas) Chambers of Commerce. Hershell also has taught Labor Policy and Procedure as an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas Graduate School of Management.

He is a past member of the Council on Labor and Employment Law of the State Bar of Texas and the Council on Labor and Employment Law of the Dallas Bar Association's Labor and Employment Law Section. He also remains very active in various Labor and Employment Law Sections of the American Bar Association.

Each year since 1987, Mr. Barnes has been named in Woodward/White, Inc.'s The Best Lawyers in America as well as being listed in D Magazine in 1999 as one of the "Best Labor Lawyers in Dallas." Mr. Barnes has also been selected as a "Texas Super Lawyer" by TEXAS MONTHLY and Law and Politics Media, Inc. every year since 2003, and Chambers and Partners USA 2005-2006 Client's Guide recognized Hershell for his practice in the areas of labor and employment law. In 2004, Mr. Barnes was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas Association of Business. He has also served as President of the Texas Tech School of Law Foundation and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation.