Judge Anne Elizabeth Barnes first won election in 1998 to the Georgia Court of Appeals in a three-way race without a runoff, and took office January 1, 1999. She was the first woman to be elected in a state-wide judicial race without having been first appointed to the bench. She served as Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and is a member of the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal, having served on its Education Committee.

After attending DeKalb County public schools, Judge Barnes entered Georgia State University, and graduated magna cum laude in 1979 with a bachelors degree. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia in 1983, and her Master of Laws in the Judicial Process from the University of Virginia in 2004.

Judge Barnes has served on the Judicial Council of Georgia's Standing Committee on Policy, and its Budget Committee, as well as the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism, the Domestic Violence Committee of the Judicial Council of Georgia, the Women in the Profession Committee of the Atlanta Bar, and the Advisory Board of Georgia State University's Department of Sociology. She is currently Chair of the Atlanta Bar Association Judicial Section and serves on the Supreme Court's Commission on Interpreters, the Commerce Club Operating Board and WIL (Women in Leadership) Committee, and the board of Foreverfamily (f/k/a Aid to Chidren of Imprisoned Mothers, Inc.) as well as the Atlanta Metropolitan College Foundation Board.. Judge Barnes volunteers with the Truancy Intervention Project's Early Intervention program, working with elementary school children and is a member of the Leadership Atlanta Class of 2006.

Judge Barnes has been recognized for her service by the Women in the Profession Committee of the Atlanta Bar, the Younger Lawyer Division of the State Bar, and Justice Served. She is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta, DeKalb, and Gate City Bar Associations, GABEO, GAWL, and GABWA. Chief Judge Barnes is a Fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia and a Master of the Lamar Inn of Court, and a member of the National Association of Women Judges, the Institute of Judicial Administration, the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, the Lawyers Club of Atlanta and the Old Warhorse Lawyers Club, and frequently participates in professional seminars as a panelist and author.

Judge Barnes is a member of St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church and the Atlanta Track Club, and has successfully completed the Peachtree Road Race more than ten times.