Jeanne Schubert Barnum

Ms. Barnum, Co-Chair of the Firm’s Construction Industry Practice Group, is a trial lawyer with more than 40 years of experience representing developers, business owners, landlords, lenders, and municipalities in a wide variety of business, commercial, premises and product liability defense, and creditors’ rights litigation. Ms. Barnum has an active dispute resolution practice, serving as both an arbitrator and mediator. She also serves as the Chair of the Metrics Subcommittee of the firm’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee.

News & Publications

Community & Pro Bono

Cherry Hill Township Environmental Board, Vice Chair
First Presbyterian Church of Somerdale, Somerdale, NJ: Elder, 2003-2006, 2018-present; Chair, Nominating Committee, 2010-2018; Chair, Mission Committee, 2019-2021, Chair, Personnel Committee, 2022-present
Support Center for Child Advocates/HIAS: pro bono representation of juvenile immigrants in court and before USCIS on their path to permanent residency
Temple University Center for Social Policy – Taught Citizenship Classes, 2017-2018
Tutored permanent residents via zoom during Pandemic preparing to take US Citizenship Examination

Education

Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University, J.D., 1975
Wilson College, B.A., magna cum laude, 1972

Bar Admissions

New Jersey, 1976
Pennsylvania, 1975

Court Admissions

Federal Court for the District of New Jersey
Federal Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Supreme Court of the United States

Clerkships

U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare, Office of the General Counsel (Summer)

Professional Affiliations

American Bar Association, Section of Litigation’s Construction Litigation Committee, Co-Chair of the Committee, 2016-2019; Co-Vice Chair of Construction Litigation Committee, 2013-2016; Chair of Green Building and Renewable Energy Sub-Committee, 2011-2013; Co-Chair of the Membership Subcommittee, 2008-2011
American Bar Association, Section of Litigation, member of Alternate Dispute Resolution Committee
National Association of Women Lawyers, Board member 1987-1993; President 1990-1991
New Jersey Bar Association, member; Construction Law Committee
New Jersey Bar Association, member; Renewable Energy, Cleantech and Climate Change Committee
Forum of Executive Women, Board of Directors and Chair of Program Committee, 2018-2020; Vice Chair of Program Committee, 2016-2018
Construction Lawyers Society of America, Fellow

Other Distinctions

Listed in The Best Lawyers of America for Litigation-Construction, 2018-2023; and Construction Law, 2020-2023*
Recipient of Schnader’s Harrison Award for Pro Bono, 2017
Recognized as “Outstanding Subcommittee Chair” for the American Bar Association, Section of Litigation’s Construction Litigation Committee, 2010-2011
Noted as “New Jersey’s Women Leaders in the Law,” 2012*
Named to “New Jersey Super Lawyers” for construction litigation, 2006-2007 and 2012-2017*
Phi Beta Kappa
Davison-Foreman Fellowship

*No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. Further information on methodologies is available via these links.

Representative Matters

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Ms. Barnum is on the Roster of Arbitrators and the Roster of Mediators of the American Arbitration Association.
Ms. Barnum is on the Roster of Mediators for the New Jersey State Court and is an Arbitrator for the Federal District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Ms. Barnum has represented parties in American Arbitration Association, Home Owner Warranty, private, and court-ordered mediations and arbitrations for more than 20 years.
Ms. Barnum serves as an arbitrator involving construction, product liability, contract, tort, and warranty claims with businesses, insurers, government entities, and individuals as parties.
Ms. Barnum has mediated construction, commercial, product liability, tort, insurance, contractual, environmental, and municipal disputes.

Construction Industry Litigation

Ms. Barnum has represented a national homebuilder in a variety of contract, tort, and warranty actions in court, before the American Arbitration Association, and in private dispute resolution settings.
Ms. Barnum has represented a developer with respect to its rights and responsibilities under the New Jersey Planned Real Estate Full Disclosure Act, especially with respect to active adult communities.
Ms. Barnum successfully defended a developer in an appeal by a group of homeowners seeking class certification and nullification of an arbitration provision in a new home sales agreement.

Financial Litigation

On behalf of a national commercial mortgage corporation, Ms. Barnum brought a multimillion-dollar foreclosure action against a privately owned care center in New Jersey and a companion fraudulent transfer action against the shareholders of the corporation that owned the center.
Ms. Barnum represented three of six executors/trustees of a $20 million estate in successful action to fulfill the terms of the testator’s will in the face of opposition mounted by a corporate trustee.
On behalf of a federally chartered savings and loan association, Ms. Barnum foreclosed on an apartment building and had a receiver appointed in state court, sued the guarantor in federal court, and negotiated a deed in lieu and subsequent sale of the real property.

Environmental Litigation

Ms. Barnum has successfully defended potentially responsible municipal and private parties in environmental landfill cleanup actions brought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and clients faced with Environmental Rights Act claims.

Counsel