2025 Distinguished Alumni Awards
Legal Innovator • Tim Barfield
Class of 1989
Principal & President • CSRS
Tim Barfield hasn’t ever been hung up on job titles.
“I certainly have ambition and I’m a competitor who wants to do well at everything I do,” he says, “but I never set out to have any job title. I’ve always just wanted to be at high-performing organizations, in positions where I’m able to make a difference and learn something new.”
Perhaps that’s why he has held so many varied titles over his impressive career as an attorney, business executive, and public servant.
Since graduating from LSU Law as a member of The Order of the Coif in 1989, Barfield has practiced at a large law firm, led a Fortune 500 company, headed up two of Louisiana’s most important state departments, served as executive counsel to the governor, and oversaw development efforts for a nationwide home health hospice company.
“I’m a bit of a restless spirit,” Barfield acknowledges, “but more than that, I think I’ve just been fortunate to have some really interesting opportunities come my way—and I’ve been pretty game to give them a shot.”
For the past nine years, Barfield has been at Baton Rouge-based design and construction management firm CSRS, where he is principal and president.
“But even here, I didn’t come to CSRS as president,” he notes. “I started here under some made up title because we were just seeing if I would be a good fit. That’s what was most important. After we realized it was going to be a great fit, I took on a more traditional title and solidified what my role would be.”
Barfield’s nontraditional legal career may also be rooted in his nontraditional approach to law school. Even as an LSU Law student, he was more interested in business and finance—which he had studied as an undergrad—than he was in bench memos and trial briefs.
“I had a broad vision for what I could do with a law degree, but I was naïve in the sense that I didn’t think about going to law school to become a lawyer.”
That’s not to say that he doesn’t love to practice law. Barfield’s career began on the traditional legal track, with him clerking at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana before going to work for Vinson & Elkins in Dallas.
“I did securities, M&As, and business transactions, and I absolutely loved it,” he says. “It was also a great way to learn business vicariously.”
Barfield had been practicing for about four years when he got a surprising offer to return to Baton Rouge to join engineering and industrial services firm The Shaw Group as general counsel. He later led the company as president and chief operating officer.
“My dad was an engineer—an engineer’s engineer, if you will—and he said to me: ‘Why would you leave a job that you love at a great firm to go work for some company?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m still going to be a lawyer, dad.’ About 10 years later he said to me, ‘You know, that actually worked out really well for you.’”
There are a few common threads that run through Barfield’s career stops. One is his desire “to build and improve organizations in which people are truly valued.” Another is his LSU Law education.
“I use it every day,” he says. “When I meet with a client, I think like a lawyer. What is their goal? What are all the possible outcomes? What are the factors that are in our control, and which are not? It’s the same type of analysis that you’re doing if you’re litigating or handling a negotiation, and I’ve loved bringing that to my work in engineering, construction, health care, government, and architecture.”
Law school not only provided Barfield with the tools to practice as an attorney, but with a valuable new perspective upon which to approach problems and potential solutions.
“To do well in law school, you have to get outside of your own mind and set aside your preconceived notions of how the world works,” he explains. “I saw many people struggle in their first year of law school because they wanted to be right. I came to understand pretty quickly that the most important thing was not to be right, but to be able to understand all the possible points of view—and be prepared to address them.”
And though he considers himself a “pretty boring guy,” Barfield says being honored as LSU Law’s inaugural Legal Innovator in recognition of his “pretty wacky career” is further testament to the incalculable value of a law school education.
“Historically, there have been so many LSU Law alumni who have gone on to do great things outside the courtroom. It’s awesome that the law school is recognizing alumni who have non-traditional careers, and I’m incredibly honored to be among them.”
