Stephen M. "Steve" Barbas
Steve Barbas is an attorney and senior partner at Barbas, Koenig, Nuñez, Sanders, and Butler in Tampa, Florida. The firm includes 11 attorneys who serve clients throughout Florida. The firm specializes in personal injury, wrongful death, workers’ compensation, labor and employment, nursing home negligence, product liability, criminal law, civil litigation, marital and family law, bankruptcy, and probate and guardianship. Barbas’ own areas of practice are workers’ compensation, products liability, and personal injury law.
Barbas began his legal career as an assistant city attorney in Tampa in 1979. His professional memberships include American Bar Association, the Litigation, State and Local Government Sections; Hillsborough County Bar Association; Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers; American Trial Lawyers Association; and Workers’ Compensation and Trial Lawyers Sections of the Florida Bar. He was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1979 and has also been admitted to the bars of the U.S. Supreme Court; U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida; and U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits. In 1991, he became board certified in workers’ compensation with the Florida Bar.
Barbas attended Stetson University in Deland, Florida, from 1972 to 1974 where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a bachelor of science degree cum laude in business administration from Florida State University in 1976. In 1979, he received a J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans School of Law, where he was a member of the Loyola Law Review, Phi Alpha Delta, the Student Bar Association, and St. Thomas More Society. He is a graduate of Jesuit High School in Tampa, where he served on the alumni board from 1990 – 2000.
Barbas served as chair of the board of trustees for Academy of the Holy Names from 2002 – 2003 and as a trustee since 1999. From 1988 – 2000, he was a board member for Tampa Day Preschool and Kindergarten and president of that board in 1990 and 1991. He was a member and secretary/treasurer of the Young Lawyers’ Section of the Hillsborough County Bar Association in 1986 and 1988. He is a member of the Sierra Club, World Wildlife Federation, Save Manatee Club, the Humane Society, Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa Railway Society, Tampa Museum of Science and Industry, Florida Aquarium, Tampa Historical Society, Ybor City Museum, and American Red Cross Legacy Society.
Barbas served as chair of the Loyola School of Law Visiting Committee from 2001 – 2004, the first chair from outside Louisiana, and now continues as an emeritus member of the committee. He was also a member of the President’s Council, a volunteer for his 1999 law class reunion, and chair of the Tampa Prospect Advisory Committee during Loyola’s Thresholds capital campaign. During that campaign, he and his wife created the Stephen and Schezy Barbas Endowed Scholarship to support Loyola common law students from Florida. Barbas was also instrumental in the publication of the fall 2002 Loyola University New Orleans Magazine cover story featuring five Loyola alumni who serve as judges in the Tampa Bay area. He hosted a law alumni event at his home in Tampa in May 2004. Barbas’ term with the Loyola Board of Trustees began in 2004.
