Brian J. Sutherland

Brian J. Sutherland is an accomplished trial and appellate civil rights lawyer who has won justice for clients at every level, from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Brian has deep experience, having represented hundreds of clients in a wide variety of employment discrimination, retaliation, whistleblower, sexual harassment, overtime and minimum wage, and civil rights cases. He has tried multiple cases to juries in the state and federal courts of Georgia, winning substantial relief for working people. For example, Brian won an award of $622,000 for a 911 operator after the jury found violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

More recently, Brian served as lead counsel at the U.S. Supreme Court for Gerald Bostock, the plaintiff in the landmark case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, which banned workplace discrimination against LGBTQ people nationwide. Prior to Bostock, employees could be fired on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity in several states, but Brian and his co-counsel persuaded the Supreme Court that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ people from workplace discrimination too. Brian was interviewed by national media and invited to the National Press Club to discuss sex discrimination and the Bostock case.

Brian has also represented clients in other civil rights cases. His first job as a lawyer was as a Staff Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, representing voters and communities of color in voting rights cases. Brian has since continued to represent those seeking to safeguard the fundamental right to vote in Georgia and elsewhere. He represented the NAACP, the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO), and voters in Gwinnett County in a case brought under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which recognized the right of voters of color join together in coalitions for voting rights lawsuits. As an Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, he helped the Washington State Attorney General’s Office secure a $2.2 million settlement and other relief for immigrants who alleged that a nationwide bus company unlawfully allowed federal agents onboard to question and detain them.

Brian graduated summa cum laude in 2006 from the Seattle University School of Law, an institution known for preparing lawyers to pursue social justice as part of the Jesuit Catholic tradition of Seattle University. After working as a Staff Attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, he served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. E.E.O.C. in Miami, Florida, where he litigated cases for the federal government on behalf of victims of employment discrimination and retaliation. Brian then joined and later became partner at Buckley Beal, a highly regarded plaintiff’s employment and business litigation firm in Atlanta. From 2020 to 2022, he served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, participating in litigation against the Trump Administration and other civil rights cases. He has also published in law journals about civil rights issues and co-authored a book about Georgia employment law.

Brian is a member of the State Bars of Georgia and Washington State, and is admitted to practice in the Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court, the federal courts of Georgia and Washington State, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court. He is also a member of the Atlanta Bar Association and the St. Thomas More Society of Atlanta. In his spare time, he enjoys bicycling, sailing, and chasing his two young sons around the yard.