Education

Law School/Year: Arizona State University College of Law

College/Year: Arizona State University

Bar Admissions

California; Nevada

Practice Areas

Real Estate Transactional

Professional Background

Chris Barnette is a principal of the Law Offices of Christopher Barnette, a law practice specializing in both litigation and transactional matters involving all types of real estate, including land acquisition, construction, sales, housing, condemnation, leasehold, title issues, construction defect claims, licensing and subdivision map issues. Barnette’s practice includes claims and matters throughout California and in Nevada. Representative clients of his practice include D.R. Horton and Intergulf Development. Prior to opening the Law Offices of Christopher Barnette, Barnette served as the vice president/general counsel West region for D.R. Horton, Inc., from 2005 through 2009. In that role, Barnette served as general counsel for the national homebuilder’s operating divisions located throughout the Western United States, including for divisions operating in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii. He supervised and was responsible for all legal matters for the divisions, including land acquisition and disposition in excess of $2.5 billion, land development, licensing, contracting, legal compliance, general operational matters, and litigation. Barnette supervised and directed outside counsel in all litigation, including in construction claims, construction defect claims, land acquisition disputes, supplier disputes, intellectual property claims and employment litigation, and supervised in-house division counsel within the divisions. Before joining D.R. Horton, Barnette was a litigation partner at the firm of Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, LLP, where he practiced from 1987 through 2005. He had an extensive real estate litigation practice at Luce Forward, and his practice included real estate transaction disputes, land use matters, commercial leasing, condemnation, real estate finance and construction claims. Barnette also had extensive business litigation experience in partnership and entity disputes, corporate derivative actions, class actions, intellectual property matters, and general contract disputes.

Professional Affiliations

He has been active in the litigation and real property sections of the State Bar of California, including serving as the Southern California chair of the litigation subsection of real property section, and serving as Editor of California Litigation, and Editor-in-Chief of California Litigation News.