Firm News
CEO Lawyer is pleased to spotlight Julia Barbani, Senior Attorney, a personal injury litigator with over a decade of experience representing injured clients, building high-performing legal teams, and pushing for every last dollar her clients deserve. Julia brings to the firm a rare combination of deep litigation instincts, pre-litigation strategy, and a genuine passion for the people she represents. Her career is a story of steady growth, deliberate choices, and an unwavering commitment to doing right by clients at every level of a case.
A Career Built in the Trenches
Julia has been practicing law since 2014, starting in Georgia where she sat for the bar exam and launched her legal career. Her entry point was on the business litigation side, motion responses, document review, and the kind of heavy discovery work that teaches you precision and patience before anything else. It was foundational work, and after about a year of it, she transitioned into personal injury. That decision defined the next decade of her life.
“Personal injury is my passion,” Julia says. “That’s where I’ve been since then, a little over 10 years now in the PI space specifically.”
Her early years in personal injury were spent at what she describes as a boutique firm, smaller in size but deep in complexity. The cases were complicated, the litigation was serious, and the work demanded a level of precision that most junior attorneys don’t encounter right away. Julia was writing briefs, preparing for mediation, defending and taking depositions, and building a foundation that would carry her through every role that followed. After about three and a half years, she felt ready for something broader.
“That’s really where I got to cut my teeth on doing a lot of different things,” she explains of her move to a higher-volume firm. “That’s where I got my first taste of leadership and managing a team. I got to work into pre-litigation and the strategies there, which are very different from litigation. And I would say that’s where I found my niche.”
Pre-litigation and litigation require fundamentally different mindsets, and having experience in both gave Julia a perspective that few attorneys carry. She understands how cases are built from the ground up and what it takes to bring them home in the courtroom or at the negotiating table. That dual fluency became one of her greatest professional assets.
She spent close to eight years at that firm in total, growing from individual contributor to Managing Attorney, overseeing an average of five associate attorneys and ten case managers directly on her team, with a seat at the management table. Along the way, she briefly stepped outside of law firm life to take what she calls a sabbatical inside an orthopedic practice that worked heavily with personal injury cases. The experience opened her eyes to the medical side of the industry, how providers operate, how treatment timelines unfold, and how that world intersects with the legal process her clients are navigating. It was valuable. But it confirmed what she already knew about herself.
“Representing clients is really where my passion is, and also leading and developing a team. I’m passionate about both of those things. Staying on the in-house side just wasn’t a good fit for me, but it was cool experience.”
She returned to her previous firm in a managing attorney role, ready to build something. But after nearly a decade at the same place, she was also ready for a new challenge. When Ali Awad made her an offer to join CEO Lawyer, the timing was right.
“Close to 10 years at one firm is a long time. I met Ali and was excited about the growth of this firm and wanted an opportunity to come here, so when Ali made me the offer, I was thrilled to take it and haven’t looked back.”
Leading People and Building Teams
Throughout her career, Julia has never been content doing only one thing. She cannot thrive as a pure individual contributor, and she cannot thrive managing without doing. For her, the two have always been inseparable, and she says the skills built in one area feed directly into the other.
“I’m building and developing relationships. I’m doing that with adjusters and defense attorneys. I’m doing that with my team. I’m doing that with my clients. And all of those skills are kind of very malleable into how I do it all.”
Negotiating a settlement, developing a junior attorney, and advocating for a client all draw from the same well: the ability to understand what the other person needs, communicate clearly, and push toward the best possible outcome. Julia moves fluidly between all three, and she says taking any one of them away would leave something missing.
When it comes to building a team, she knows what she is looking for, and it goes beyond credentials or case management experience. The intangible she screens for above everything else is genuine passion for personal injury work.
“To be really good at personal injury, you have to love it. Do you actually love PI and want to make a difference for clients, or does this just seem like a job?”
It is a question she has asked in countless interviews, and the answer tells her everything she needs to know.
