Cory Barnwell

After his first year of law school in May of 2012, Cory Barnwell began interning for a now retired part-time Fulton County magistrate Judge’s private practice.  Under his mentorship, Cory assisted in handling cases involving criminal offenses, personal injury, medical malpractice, domestic relations, and business disputes all throughout law school. Cory was also able to gain extensive experience performing appellate work including writing briefs on behalf of both appellants and appellees, including engaging in oral argument before the Georgia Supreme Court within his first year of practice in 2014. In addition to his employment with this prior litigation firm, between 2013 and 2014 Cory worked for over 288 hours with the Fulton County Solicitor’s Office prosecuting misdemeanors while he was a law student sworn in under Georgia’s Third-Year Practice Act.

In September of 2017, Cory opened Barnwell Law Group and also accepted the position of Chief Legal Officer of Vensure Employer Services, Inc, the country’s largest privately held professional employer organization.  Cory has continued to focus his practice on the corporate areas of law to a niche clientele, including acting as primary outside counsel and general counsel to other various entities and assisting in managing corporate records, drafting and reviewing contracts, and assisting in the drafting of transactional documents to effectuate mergers and acquisitions. Cory has also successfully defended and prosecuted civil litigation cases in arbitrations, state and federal trial courts, and appellate courts in Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia.

James R. Francis

James R. Francis is based out of Atlanta, Georgia. He devotes his time equally amongst his trial practice, representing individual and corporations in matters brought before all the Courts of the State of Georgia, and his transactional practice. Focusing primarily on corporate finance transactions and securities regulatory matters, including mergers and acquisitions; venture capital and private equity investments; compliance with securities disclosure obligations; corporate governance; corporate restructurings; joint ventures and strategic alliances. James relishes any opportunity to before a Court and Jury. He spent the first five (5) years of his career predominantly working as litigator representing those who have been injured by the wrongful acts of others. His background gives him a diverse expertise in numerous legal specialties which is invaluable to those individuals and corporations that he represents.

While not practicing law, James enjoys spending his TIME traveling with friends and family and being active in the community. He attends Buckhead Church and participates in various charities throughout the State of Georgia. He also enjoys, running, hiking, playing tennis and being on the water any chance he gets.