Nicole M. Barnard, a principal with Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, P.A., is a member of the Firm’s Litigation & Dispute Resolution Group.  She focuses her practice on complex commercial litigation and regularly represents individuals and corporate clients in disputes primarily involving business torts, contract interpretation, real estate, construction claims and consumer claims.  

Nicole handles various stages of litigation in federal and state trial courts.  She has a successful motions practice through which she effectively challenges lawsuits involving clients, thus enabling her to frequently resolve cases before trial and reduce the overall cost of litigation.  In addition to handling trial court cases, Nicole also has assisted with securing positive outcomes in appellate cases, including two recent Maryland Court of Appeals cases: Willie Ford v. Antwerpen Motorcars Ltd., 443 Md. 471 (2015) and Kelly v. Duvall, 441 Md. 275 (2015).  Nicole is known for her thorough preparation and ability to persuasively argue issues to achieve favorable results for clients.
  
In addition to litigation experience, Nicole’s legal background includes commercial real estate experience dealing with the acquisition, development, financing, leasing and disposition of real property, as well as corporate experience assisting with mergers and acquisitions.  Nicole uses her diverse experience and ability to see multiple angles of an issue to comprehensively counsel clients.

Before joining Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, P.A., Nicole served as a judicial intern to Judge George L. Russell, III, at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and as a law clerk at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.  She was a summer associate at the Firm and has worked in the Firm’s Commercial Real Estate Group.  Additionally, Nicole was an associate in the products liability practice group of a prominent international law firm in Washington, D.C. and in the mergers and acquisition practice group of a corporate boutique law firm in Baltimore.  

Nicole earned her J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, graduating magna cum laude while serving as the editor-in-chief of the Maryland Law Review, a Women, Leadership and Equality Program Rose Zetzer Fellow and a member of the Order of the Coif.  She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, graduated magna cum laude, and earned her degree, with honors, in political science.