Faculty & Administration View All

Matthew J. Barrett

Professor of Law

Office Number: 323 Law School
Telephone: 574.631.8121
Fax: 574.631.4197
Email: Matthew.J.Barrett.1@nd.edu
Staff Assistant: Sharon Loftus

Matthew J. Barrett, a member of the Notre Dame Law School faculty since 1990, teaches business-related courses, including accounting for lawyers, federal income taxation, not-for-profit organizations, and a seminar discussing selected topics involving the intersection between law and accounting. In 2001, the graduating class named him the Law School’s Distinguished Teacher for the 2000-01 academic year.

Professor Barrett earned both his B.B.A. and his J.D. summa cum laude from Notre Dame in 1982 and 1985, respectively, graduating at the top of his law-school class. A member of the Ohio bar since 1985, he clerked for the Honorable Cornelia G. Kennedy at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (1985-86), and worked as an associate at the Columbus, Ohio, law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease (1986-90).

Professor Barrett became a Certified Public Accountant in Ohio in 1987. The Ohio Society of Certified Public Accountants awarded him its Silver Medal for the second-highest score on the May 1982 Ohio CPA examination, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants awarded him its Elijah Watt Sells certificate for performance with high distinction on the May 1982 Uniform CPA examination.

In 1997, Professor Barrett joined David R. Herwitz, now the Royall Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, as co-author of the second edition of the law school casebook, Accounting for Lawyers, a text whose roots date back to the first casebook on accounting for law students in 1948. Professor Barrett co-authored unabridged and concise versions of the third edition in 2001. Following the third editions, Foundation Press published an update in 2002, and bound supplements in 2004 and 2005. To date, the third editions have been adopted at more than sixty law schools across the nation.

Professor Barrett actively participates in the life of the Law School and the University. In 1998, the Student Bar Association awarded him the Captain William O. McLean Community Spirit Award for exceptional contributions to community life. Within the Law School, he currently serves on the Appointments Committee (since 2004) and the Building Committee (also since 2004). He has also chaired the Law School’s Loan Forgiveness Committee (2001-2004) and served as faculty advisor to the Business Law Forum (1998-2003).

Since 1994, Professor Barrett has served as a member of the Accountancy Advisory Board in the Mendoza College of Business. He previously served two terms as the Law School’s elected representative to the University’s Faculty Board on Athletics (1998-2004), serving as chair of the subcommittee on student welfare (2001-2004), a member of the subcommittee on communications (2000-2001), and a member of the University’s Ad Hoc Committee on Drug Testing of Student-Athletes (2001-2003). Professor Barrett also served on the Committee on Student Life and the Subcommittee on Student Activities for the Colloquy for the Year 2000 (1991-92) and the Niebuhr and Clark Awards Committee (1997-2002).

Outside the University, Professor Barrett has served as chair (1999-2000) and member (1997-2000) of the Committee on Audit and Association Investment Policy for the Association of American Law Schools, on the editorial board of the Journal of Limited Liability Companies (1994-1998), and as recording secretary of the taxation committee of the Ohio State Bar Association (1989-1990). He is a member of the ABA Section on Business Law, Committee on Law and Accounting (since 1995) and was elected as an alumnus member of Phi Beta Kappa in 2002.

He has served as an elected member of the Parish Pastoral Council at St. Joseph Church in South Bend from 1999-2002 and also served on the Strategic Planning Steering Committee from 1999-2005. Professor Barrett also assists the Notre Dame Legal Aid Clinic with tax and not-for-profit corporation issues, volunteers with the Tax Assistance Program in the Mendoza College of Business, and has advised the South Bend Center for the Homeless on various tax and corporate matters.

He is married to Kate Barrett, who works part-time for Campus Ministry as the Director of Resources and Special Projects. They have three grade-school aged sons, Kevin, Wilson and Luke, and one daughter, Maggie.

LAW70100, Accounting for Lawyers

LAW70121, Not-for-Profit Organizations

LAW70605, Federal Income Taxation

LAW73147, Accounting Law Seminar

Faculty Expertise Areas

  • Law and accounting
  • Tax law and policy

Books

Materials on Accounting for Lawyers, with David R. Herwitz (Foundation Press, 2d ed. 1997, 3d ed. 2001, concise 3d ed. 2001, 4th ed. 2006, concise 4th ed. 2006).

Teacher’s Manual for Materials on Accounting for Lawyers, with David R. Herwitz (Foundation Press, 2d ed. 1997, 3d ed. 2001, concise 3d ed. 2002), 4th ed. 2006, concise 4th ed. 2006).

Supplement to Materials on Accounting for Lawyers, with David R. Herwitz (Foundation Press 2d ed. 1999, 2000; 3d ed, 2004, 2005; concise 3d ed. 2004, 2005).

Special Update to Materials on Accounting for Lawyers, with David R. Herwitz (Foundation Press 1998, 2002).

Book Segments

Enron and Andersen–What Went Wrong and Why Similar Audit Failures Could Happen Again in Enron Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications 155-168 (Nancy B. Rapoport & Bala G. Dharan eds., Foundation Press 2004).

Articles

Professor Barrett has published numerous articles in his areas of academic expertise, including:

Sarbanes-Oxley, Kermit the Frog, and Competition Regarding Audit Quality, 3 Journal of Business & Technology Law 207 (2008).

The SEC and Accounting, in Part Through the Eyes of Pacioli, 80 Notre Dame Law Review 837-92 (2005).

Tax Services as a Trojan Horse in the Auditor Independence Provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley, 2004 Michigan State Law Review 463-504 (2004).

Practicing What We Teach: A Call For Progressive Church Taxes, America 18-20 (March 29, 2004).

The Theological Case for Progressive Taxation as Applied to Diocesan Taxes or Assessments Under Canon Law in the United States, The Jurist 63 (2003) 312-65.

New Opportunities for Obtaining and Using Litigation Reserves and Disclosures, 64 Ohio St. L.J. 1183 (2003).

Opportunities for Obtaining and Using Litigation Reserves and Disclosures, 63 Ohio St. L.J. 1017-1106 (2002).

Enron, Accounting, and Lawyers, Notre Dame Lawyer, Summer 2002, at 14–20 (reprinted on pages 193 to 201 of a Program Handbook entitled “Analyzing Financial Statements After Enron What Every Lawyer Should Know” (January 2003)).

Agency Authority in LLC Statues (Part II): Hypothetical Situations and Practical Suggestions, with Brian H. Blaney, 5 The Journal of Limited Liability Companies 11 (1998).

Agency Authority in LLC Statues (Part I): Uniformity and Peculiarity, with Brian H. Blaney, 4 The Journal of Limited Liability Companies 139 (1998).

Determining an Individual’s Federal Income Tax Liability When the Tax Benefit Rule Applies: A Fifty-Year Checkup Brings a New Prescription for Calculating Gross, Adjusted Gross and Taxable Incomes, 1994 Brigham Young University Law Review 1 (1994), reprinted in 63 Tax Notes 899 (1994).

Reducing Liability Risks of Members in a Multistate Limited Liability Company, 1 The Journal of Limited Liability Companies 57 (1994).

Contort: Tortious Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing in Noninsurance, Commercial Contracts — Its Existence and Desirability, 60 Notre Dame Law Review 510 (1985).