Areas of Practice:

Land Use

Zoning

Environmental Law

Bar Admissions:

Maryland

District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the

        District of Maryland

Jessica Snow Barnes is a member of the Firm’s Administrative Law and Government Relations Practice Group, where she assists local developers and builders with navigating the complex approval processes mandated by state and local agencies.  Ms. Barnes primarily counsels clients in the Firm’s Charles County office in La Plata, Maryland, on issues relating to all facets of the development process.  Her experience has varied widely from the application of the State’s Critical Areas Act and other state environmental laws and regulations that impose restrictions upon growth in local jurisdictions, to the interpretation of local zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, and the provision of adequate public facilities.

Ms. Barnes is well-versed in Maryland environmental law, and has co-authored a paper entitled, “Smart Growth – An Introduction” that was published in association with MICPEL’s Land Use Institute (2006).  More recently, she co-authored a paper entitled “A Brief Overview of the Promulgation and Enforcement of Selected Maryland Environmental Laws & Regulations” that was published in association with the Judicial Institute of Maryland (2009). 

Ms. Barnes earned her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, during which time she served as a member and a coach of the Entertainment and Communications Moot Court team and was a student attorney in the Georgetown Juvenile Justice Clinic.  While attending law school, Ms. Barnes served as the Asian Specialist of the United States for the U.S. Census Bureau, where she was responsible for providing data and analysis of racial statistics compiled from the decennial census.   As a civilian with the U.S. Army JAG Corps, she was stationed in Darmstadt, Germany and provided mission-critical services to soldiers stationed in Europe and deploying to Iraq.  Ms. Barnes received her B.A., magna cum laude, in Urban Studies and Ethics from Wittenberg University.   She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Ms. Barnes, a resident of Charles County, is the President of the Waldorf Rotary.  Rotary International is a worldwide humanitarian organization with over 1.2 million members in over 200 countries and geographical areas.  Ms. Barnes also chairs the Environmental Subcommittee of the Charles County Liaison Committee of the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association, which is a non-profit trade organization that advocates for maximization of business opportunities for the building industry and its members.  She is an active member of the Prince George’s County and Charles County Bar Associations, and currently represents the Charles County Bar Association in the Maryland State Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section.  As part of her service to the MSBA’s Young Lawyers Section, Ms. Barnes serves as coordinator of the Wills-For-Heroes program in Maryland, which provides free estate planning documents for first responders.  Ms. Barnes is admitted to practice in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.