Barta, Brian

Tod J. Barrett’s practice is concentrated in employment litigation and employment law.

Early in his career, Mr. Barrett served as a Trial Attorney, and then Senior Trial Attorney, with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in Dallas, Texas, where he prosecuted employment discrimination cases under Title VII and the ADEA against some of the nation’s largest companies and largest law firms, including a nationwide, disparate treatment and disparate impact statistical class action again a Fortune 500 company, and a six-figure ADEA jury verdict against a national publishing/media company.  He was also a participant in the EEOC’s National Training as part of the original passage and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Mr. Barrett then went on to serve as a federal Administrative Judge for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), where he presided over, adjudicated, mediated and resolved hundreds of federal sector employment discrimination cases in northern Texas and Oklahoma involving numerous federal agencies, including the United States Postal Service; U.S. Housing and Urban Development; Federal Aviation Administration; Army and Air Force Exchange Service; and others.

He then returned to Oklahoma to join a large Tulsa/Oklahoma City law firm where he practiced exclusively employment litigation defense work, successfully representing and defending an array of clients in employment and employment discrimination cases, including Fortune 500 companies, a large Oklahoma school district, and a large State agency and its Executive Director in a political retaliation case.

Mr. Barrett subsequently left the full time practice of law to pursue other business and personal interests, returning in 2011 to join the Office of Oklahoma’s new Attorney General as an Assistant Attorney General, where he successfully represented and defended numerous State agencies and State officials in employment litigation, as well as provided input in connection with Oklahoma’s newly enacted Anti-Discrimination Act, the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.

In addition to practicing law, Mr. Barrett is a small business owner, an award-winning BMI songwriter, and has served on numerous boards, both civic and arts related, in Norman and Oklahoma City.  In 2008 he was the Republican candidate for Oklahoma House District 44 in Norman.  He lives in Norman with his wife of 26 years. They have two children, ages 20 and 18, and are members of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City. 

With Doerner Saunders, Mr. Barrett will be representing and defending employers in employment litigation and other various employment matters, including Charges of Discrimination filed with the EEOC  and/or the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission, with an emphasis on Title VII (race, color, sex, sexual harassment, national origin, religion); ADEA (age); ADA  (disability); FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act); and retaliation. 

In addition, Mr. Barrett will counsel on entertainment law issues, particularly those relating to the music industry, artists, songwriters, publishers, studios, and musicians, and conduct mediations, with an emphasis on mediating employment and labor cases and disputes.