Brian J. Sutherland

• State Bars of Georgia
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Georgia Supreme Court
• Georgia Court of Appeals
• Washington
• Atlanta Bar Association
• Federal Bar Association

• As an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Washington State Attorney General's Office, litigated to settlement by consent decree a matter on behalf of the State against Greyhound Lines, Inc. for allegedly allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to board the company's buses to conduct immigration enforcement sweeps in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and Washington Law Against Discrimination. See https://www.law360.com/articles/1425647/greyhound-inks-deal-ending-border-agent-bus-sweep-suit. The settlement included $2.2 million in restitution and other non-monetary relief, including corporate reforms., 2021
• Served as lead counsel and counsel of record for the plaintiff in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), the landmark Supreme Court case establishing that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf., 2020
• Represented Asian Americans Advancing Justice and a Korean-American in a lawsuit against the State of Georgia to stop enforcement of a state statute that allegedly violated the language access provisions of the Voting Rights Act. See https://archive.advancingjustice-la.org/media-and-publications/press-releases/advancing-justice-seeks-protect-limited-english-proficient#.YqNh8KjMKUl. The case was successful in that the State of Georgia settled the matter, agreeing to cease enforcement the statute. See https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f0cc12a064e9716d52e6052/t/6101b201eb5e287b0702fc09/1627501057887/Kwon+-+Doc+7+Consent+Order.pdf., 2018
• Served as lead counsel for the plaintiff in Allen v. Banks County, Ga., 2:16-cv-00076-RWS (N.D. Ga.), in which a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff of over $622,000 was awarded for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act after a successful jury trial. See https://www.yahoo.com/now/fired-banks-county-911-operator-174554424.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFJ6X__OxOrbTXNhkyaKf7DrBtiYklKJ1wcLC7c7zT5BsrFOxmyXUo-eqbqNZhf5s2FpSF2AjPBLODP4gMf9IHsRL_htjibFYDrLw-PMNuCrRO7VRRKbGHUuNX_CO4vq2pGy032ShQ-lJlBeLR4woLplKZtP303OEx5AV1k7wRYI., 2018

• The National Press Club presented a discussion with Gerald Bostock, a gay man who was fired from his job as a welfare services coordinator and was the plaintiff in Bostock v. Clayton County, GA, a landmark case heard by the Supreme Court. Lead counsel Brian Sutherland discussed the events that brought the case to the Supreme Court, the legal issues, and how the justices responded to argument., National Press Club - LGBTQ Rights and Workplace Discrimination, 2019
• A local man who says he was fired from his job because he is gay will take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday. Gerald Bostock ran Clayton County’s Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA, program for 10 years. But he said everything changed once he joined a gay recreational softball league., Georgia man who says he was fired for being gay takes case to U.S. Supreme Court, Civil Rights, Employment, 2019

• Gerald Bostock, 2020
• Mary Ingram, 2018
• Jandon Allen, 2018

• St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta

• AV Preeminent Judicial Edition, Martindale-Hubbell, 2021
• “Superb” rating on Avvo
• Highest Peer-Review Rating of Av Preeminent*
• AV Preeminent Judicial Edition, Martindale-Hubbell, 2020
• Top 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers, Lawdragon, 2019
• Top 500 Leading Plaintiff Employment Lawyers, Lawdragon, 2018
• AVVO 10.0 Perfect Rating, AVVO

• University of Washington, B.A., Cum Laude, 2003

• Brian J. Sutherland presented to the Washington State Redistricting Commission regarding federal voting rights law, including the constitutional and statutory issues arising from minority vote dilution in the context of redistricting. , Speaker, Minority Vote Dilution in the Context of Redistricting, Washington State Redistricting Commission, Voter Rights, 2021
• Presented continuing legal education on the Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga. decision., Speaker, A Discussion on Title VII & Bostock, Washington Employment Lawyers Association, Legal Education, Employment Law, 2020
• Featured speaker presenting continuing legal education on the Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga. decision., Speaker, Bostock v. Clayton County: the U.S. Supreme Court’s New Landmark Case on Title VII and LGBTQ+ Rights, King County Superior Court Judges and QLaw, Legal Education, Employment Law, 2020
• Invited to participate as a panelist to discuss the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia with other distinguished panelists including David Lopez, former General Counsel of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission., Panelist and Speaker, Bostock v. Clayton County: Historical Perspectives and Implications for Employment Rights and Responsibilities, American Bar Association, Legal Education, Employment Law, 2020
• From the website:  Please join us to hear the compelling story of how alumnus Brian Sutherland '06 took the case of child welfare advocate Gerald Bostock, who lost his job due to anti-gay discrimination, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court., Speaker, Influential Voices, Seattle University School of Law, Legal Education, Employment Law, 2020
• Georgia Employment Law addresses the state and federal law relevant to the practice of employment law in Georgia. The intent is to provide the practitioner with all the essential background information for practicing employment law in Georgia, the majority of which is federal legislation and case law based, and fleshing out the same with explanation of Georgia’s parallel provisions and analysis of the applications peculiar to Georgia. The book is a valuable reference guide for those practicing employment law, as well as general practitioners who are presented with employment law issues in their practice. Coverage includes these topics: wage and hour laws, unemployment insurance benefits and claims, workers compensation, employment discrimination and retaliation, workplace torts, federal and state leave laws, and workplace health, safety and privacy., Co-Author, Georgia Employment Law 2020, ALM Media Properties, LLC (ISBN # 9781628817102), Employment, 2020
• Brian J. Sutherland spoke at the Washington State Bar Association's LGBT Rights Section Annual Seminar about the historical impact of the Bostock v. Clayton County case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that LGBTQ+ people are covered by employment law protections., Speaker, Making History: Bostock v. Clayton County, Washington State Bar Association, LGBT Rights Section Annual Seminar, Civil Rights, Employment, 2020
• Brian J. Sutherland spoke to the Northwest Justice Project about the various ways discrimination impacts society, economic mobility and access to resources., Speaker, Disparate Impact Discrimination, Northwest Justice Project, Civil Rights, 2020
• Brian J. Sutherland spoke to the Atlanta Bar Association about sexual harassment litigation strategies in the #MeToo era., Speaker, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Strategies for Litigating Harassment Cases in the #MeToo Era, Atlanta Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section, Employment Law, Civil Rights, 2019
• Presented continuing legal education as a panelist with E.E.O.C. Regional Attorney Marcus Keegan (then in private practice) on how to best prepare and use pretrial orders in federal employment discrimination cases headed to trial., Panelist and Speaker, Consolidated Pretrial Orders: Crafting the Story in Legal Chapter and Verse, Employment Law Goes to Court Seminar, Georgia Institute for Continuing Legal Education, Legal Education, Employment Law, 2017
• Comment surveying laws at the federal level and in every state pertaining to the rights of voters with limited English language proficiency to obtain translated election materials or obtain assistance to case their votes, with a proposal for model language assistance legislation., Author, The Patchwork of State and Federal Language Assistance for Minority Voters and a Proposal for Model State Legislation, New York University Annual Survey of American Law, 65 N.Y.U. ANN. SURV. AMER. L. 323 (2009), Legal Education, Employment Law, 2009
• Comment providing background and analysis of the difficulty of obtaining attorney's fees in private actions to enforce voting rights after the Supreme Court's decision in Buckhannon Board & Care Home, Inc. v. West Virginia., Author, Voting Rights Rollback: The Effect of Buckhannon on Private Voting Rights Enforcement, North Carolina Central University Law Review, 30 N.C. Cent. L. Rev. 267 (2008), Legal Education, Employment Law, 2008
• Comment providing socio-legal history and analysis of institutional racism, history and analysis of constitutional precedents requiring proof of intent to discriminate, review and analysis of a Ninth Circuit decision holding that federal regulations which combat institutional discrimination are not privately enforcement with Section 1983, and a proposed interpretation of the Chevron doctrine and non-delegation doctrine to recognize the ability of federal agencies to create privately enforceable rights for the purpose of fighting institutional racism., Author, Killing Jim Crow and the Undead Nondelegation Doctrine with Privately Enforceable Federal Regulations, Seattle University Law Review, 29 Seattle U. L. Rev. 917 (2006), Employment, Civil Rights, 2006

• Served as lead counsel and counsel of record in the United States Supreme Court for the employee-plaintiff, Gerald Bostock, in his landmark case, Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga., 140 S. Ct. 1731. In Bostock, the Supreme Court held 6-3 in favor of Mr. Bostock, ruling that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity constitutes discrimination based on sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964., 2020

• Greyhound Lines Inc. will pay $2.2 million and will no longer allow U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to conduct warrantless searches on its buses in the state of Washington., Greyhound Inks Deal Ending Border Agent Bus Sweep Suit, Civil Rights, Immigration Law
• A federal district court judge in Georgia agreed that a coalition of plaintiffs representing minority communities has the right to claim the method of electing local officials in Gwinnett County, Georgia denies them from participating equally in electing local officials., Court Rejects Georgia Officials’ Efforts To Block Voting Rights Lawsuit, Voting Rights
• The decision stems from Clayton County's firing of Gerald Bostock as a child welfare services coordinator, which he said was based on his supervisors' discovery that he was gay. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit had applied its 39-year-old precedent holding “discharge for homosexuality is not prohibited by Title VII.”, In Georgia Case, High Court Holds LGBT Employees Are Protected by Sex Discrimination Law, Civil Rights, Employment
• The US Supreme Court today is hearing a major test of the scope of LGBT protections under Title VII. , Atlanta Firm Advocating for LGBT Protections, Civil Rights, Employment
• A federal judge this week entered a judgment for more than $622,000, including more than $360,000 in legal fees and expenses, for a former Banks County 911 dispatcher who a jury found was fired in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act., Fired Banks County 911 Operator Awarded $622K for ADA, FMLA Claims, Employment, Civil Rights

“Outstanding plaintiff's employment and civil rights attorney”