Justice Paul Dryden Barns

Former Justice Paul Barns attended Washington and Lee University from 1913 – 1915, then earned his law degree at the University of Florida in 1919.  The next year he began his practice in Miami. 

In 1927, Barns was elected to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court, in Miami, where he served until 1946, when he ran successfully for the Florida Supreme Court.  He was appointed to fill the last month of Justice Armstead Brown’s term and then continued his regular term. 

He retired from the court in 1949, after only three years, and immediately returned to Miami, where he joined the faculty of the University of Miami College of Law.  He taught there for the last 24 years of his life.

Justice Paul Dryden Barns served as Justice for two (2) years and ten (10) months. He served from December 2, 1946 to September 1, 1949. He was 52 when elected. He was born in Plant City, Florida, March 20, 1894, and died on September 22, 1973, in Miami, Florida.