Barbara J. Welch, Esq.

Barbara J. Welch, a native of Sarasota, graduated Cum Laude from the University of Central Florida before receiving her Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law in 1998, having interned during law school with Greater Boston Legal Services as a legal aid attorney and having an extended summer internship in the Consumer Protection Division of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Attorney General’s office. After passing the Massachusetts bar in 1998, Ms. Welch worked with solo practitioners in Boston in the areas of employment discrimination, civil rights, international business ventures, tort law, and transactional law for a year, and then for two years, worked for John Hancock Financial Services in Boston analyzing and adjudicating policyholder claims as part of the alternative dispute resolution portion of Hancock’s class action settlement.  After moving back home to Sarasota, Ms. Welch assisted legal professionals in both Massachusetts and Sarasota with legal research, consultation on case strategy, and preparation of briefs, pleadings, and memoranda, and also volunteered for Gulf Coast Legal Aid, before joining the Essenson Law Firm in 2003. Ms. Welch, who is a member of the Florida Bar and the Sarasota County Bar Association, and is also admitted to practice in Massachusetts and in the Federal District Court for the Middle District of Florida, has given presentations on end-of-life considerations, the role of inventory attorneys, was one of a three-lawyer panel discussing issues related to Undue Influence at the 2018 12th Judicial Circuit Bench Bar Conference, and was one of a two-lawyer panel discussing Mental Capacity in Estate Planning at the next 12th Judicial Circuit Bench Bar Conference held in 2023. From 2020 to 2021, Ms. Welch chaired the Solo/Small Firm Section of the Sarasota County Bar Association.