Sentara Healthcare names new general counsel

Earl Barnes will join Sentara Healthcare as its general counsel on June 2, the Norfolk-based health system announced Tuesday.

Barnes previously was executive vice president and chief legal officer for Chicago-based Amita Health. In that role, he managed the legal, compliance, audit and risk departments, leading a 60-person team and managing a $10 million annual operating budget.

Prior to joining Amita Health, Barnes was senior counsel of the health care practice group at Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP, now Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP. He also has worked with Advocate Health Care Network, where he led the $11 billion merger of Advocate Health and Aurora Health, as well as with OhioHealth Corp. and Northwestern Medicine, where he worked to establish legal extern and fellowship programs with local law schools.

Barnes chairs the Budget and Audit Committee of Just the Beginning – A Pipeline Organization, a nonprofit dedicated to nurturing interest in law among young people from ethnicities underrepresented in the profession. He also is involved with the Lake Forest College Board of Trustees, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, the American Health Law Association and the American Bar Association.

Barnes received his undergraduate degree from Lake Forest College and his law degree from University of Michigan’s law school.