Shauna Barnes

Practice Areas

Shauna Barnes is the founder of Barnes Beverage Group, a law firm specializing in providing external General Counsel and regulatory counsel to beverage companies. The firm’s model is unique, in that it favors a flat fee or subscription model that better aligns clients’ incentive and goals with that of their attorneys.

Shauna has over a decade of experience advising beverage companies, much of which was spent as General Counsel for Dogfish Head. She has extensive experience providing counsel to executive and management teams on legal, compliance and regulatory risks surrounding day-to-day operations, strategic planning, international expansion, product rollouts, and major promotions and marketing campaigns. Shauna marries legal and strategic advice to help her clients - big and small - navigate the life cycle of distribution relationships. She’s negotiated hundreds of distribution agreements, successfully rehabilitated dozens of distributor relationships, and advised clients through exiting the relationship, whether the reason was good cause or an M&A event.

Executive teams benefit from Shauna’s experience providing creative solutions to tricky regulatory schemes, including shepherding legislative changes through the statehouse. She has considerable expertise drafting and negotiating commercial agreements, including distribution, supply, project, purchase, sponsorship, and events agreements. She has worked with lobbyists and trade associations since 2012 and has drafted several pieces of legislation that are now law.

Shauna started with McDermott Will & Emery in Washington, D.C., providing antitrust and alcohol beverage counsel. At Dogfish, Shauna started the legal department and helped launch a distillery, launched dozens of states, and expanded the brewery and distillery’s capacity. She negotiated hundreds of distribution agreements and navigated dozens of strategic distribution partnership changes without litigation or arbitration.

Shauna graduated cum laude from Wake Forest University School of Law and was a graduate with distinction from the Pennsylvania State University. She serves on the Law Board of Visitors for the Wake Forest University School of Law and is a member of several alcohol beverage industry associations, including Women of the Vine & Spirits, the National Conference of State Liquor Administrators, the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, and the Brewer’s Association. She regularly volunteers her time to the Delaware Brewer’s Guild.

Professional Memberships

Maryland State Bar

North Carolina State Bar

Washington, D.C. Bar

U.S. Supreme Court Bar

Law Board of Visitors, Wake Forest University School of Law

Planning Committee, National Conference of State Liquor Administrators

Women of the Vine & Spirits

Brewer's Association

Member, various state brewers guilds

Education