Making It Right For Those Most In Need

John R. Bartholomew is a partner at The Barnes Law Group, LLC. He joined the firm in 2018 after clerking for the Hon. Amy Totenberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. He is a 2008 graduate of Harvard Law School and a 2004 graduate of Denison University.

John began his career at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, a civil non-profit law firm dedicated to equal access to justice. There, he represented low-income and senior citizen clients in consumer rights, real property, constitutional, and administrative law cases in state and federal trial and appellate courts. While he practiced in several areas, he focused most on representing victims of predatory lending against financial institutions during the height of the Great Recession. At Atlanta Legal Aid, he was lead or co-lead counsel in a number of cases where his clients won victories on issues of first impression, including Strickland v. Alexander, 772 F.3d 876 (11th Cir. 2014), where he represented a client with disabilities in the 11th Circuit and Northern District of Georgia in a successful due process challenge that resulted in Georgia’s wage garnishment statute being declared unconstitutional.

Now John specializes in high-stakes complex litigation representing governments, businesses, and individuals. He is co-lead counsel for the State of Georgia in its Opioid Litigation, where he has helped secure more than $850 million in settlements for the State thus far. He has defended judges and elected representatives in criminal, civil, and ethics proceedings. He was part of his firm’s team in the landmark Equifax data breach litigation. And he represented a coalition of affordable housing developers before the Supreme Court of Georgia in critical litigation that preserved the viability of federal and state tax credits as a tool to fund affordable housing in Georgia (Heron Lake II Apartments, LP v. Lowndes County, 306 Ga. 816 (2019)).

John is a resident of Atlanta, Georgia. He is active in the Decatur First United Methodist Church, coaches mock trial at a local high school, and enjoys reading and spending time in the great outdoors.