[2] Barnett joined the Legal Aid Society in 1966 as associate appellate counsel in its Criminal Appeals Bureau.
[3] In 2005, she initiated the LSC's annual Justice Gap report which documents the "unmet civil legal needs of low-income Americans.
"[5] In 2010, Barnett joined NYU Law’s adjunct faculty and was appointed chair of New York State Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman's Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services.
She has also served as co-chair of New York’s Commission to Promote Public Confidence in Judicial Elections and is a life member of the American Law Institute.
[3] Barnett has received many professional honors including the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, an Honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from Suffolk University, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New York Law Journal, and the New York State Bar Association Gold Medal.
Barnett also delivered the NYU Law School commencement address in May 2005 and the 2004 Sherman Bellwood Lecture at the University of Idaho, previously given by Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Antonin Scalia, and Sandra Day O'Connor.