Brittany Barrientos

Experience

Brittany's firm understanding of EHS laws allows her to effectively defend agency enforcement actions, including working with clients and agencies to develop and implement creative, environmentally beneficial solutions.

Brittany’s work is client-focused, and she joins client teams to assist with regulatory issues such as permitting, compliance counseling, and developing comments on state and federal rulemakings.

Her client-centered approach also makes Brittany a trusted adviser in emergency scenarios, and she has been called upon to be on-scene and navigate internal and multi-agency investigations following spills and/or releases. Similarly, she has counseled clients on workplace safety issues in the fast-changing environment surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

OSHA compliance has become an important aspect of Brittany's practice, and she has assisted numerous clients with compliance evaluations, inspections, citations and training on various aspects of OSHA regulations. She has also defended OSHA citations and assisted employers with developing and implementing policies and training employees to enhance workplace safety.

Brittany’s work with state and federal agencies has led her to being involved in stakeholder groups on environmental topics and drafting state implementing regulations.

Brittany’s understanding of the practicalities and nuance of environmental health and safety laws also allows her to provide efficient and comprehensive counsel during the diligence phase of real estate and corporate transactions, and to assist in implementation post-closing. She has worked on acquisitions and sales across sectors, including of manufacturing facilities, greenfields and brownfields, pipelines, retail establishments, restaurants, distilleries, recreational developments, offices spaces, warehouses, and financial institutions.

Brittany’s journalism background also provides her an interest in and long-standing experience with FOIA and local open records issues. She regularly files information requests and is adept at obtaining publicly available information.

Committed to service, Brittany is actively involved with the firm's pro bono efforts, working with clients in the Marlborough neighborhood of Kansas City, assisting victims of Hurricane Harvey, and volunteering with the Advocates for Human Rights on international policy issues. She also serves as Co-Captain for the Election Protection call center, a non-partisan election protection coalition ensuring all voters have an equal opportunity to vote.

Brittany also has a long-standing commitment to diversity in the legal field, starting with co-founding her law school’s Hispanic Law Student Association; she now serves on the Board of the Diverse Attorney Pipeline Program which seeks to increase representation of women of color in the legal profession, and was nominated to the Missouri Bar Special Committee on Lawyers of Color.

Brittany is a graduate of the Centurions leadership program (Class of 2019). Through the Centurions program, Brittany volunteered more than 100 hours over a two-year period. She helped to plant trees as part of a community garden project, counted diapers, sorted vegetables, painted murals, worked with children from across the metro, and even became a “skilled” local face painter.

News

Speaking Engagements

"Prepaid Compliance in a Crisis & Beyond," Innovative Payments Association, April 2020

ChemEdge, EPA Enforcement: A Chemical Manufacturer’s Walk through an Enforcement Action, August 2019

Air Policy Panel Discussion, Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference, April 2019

Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Environmental Enforcement Special Institute, Walk through an Enforcement Action: An Audience Participation Event, December 2018

Missouri Water Seminar, Unmanned Aircraft and their Uses in Environmental Law, September 2018

Midwest Environmental Compliance Conference, General Duty Clause: The Provision that Swallowed the Rule, May 2017

ChemEdge, EPA Enforcement of the Clean Air Act General Duty Clause against Chemical Distributors … Will you be Punished for Accidents and Near Misses, August 2016

"Big Law Success: The Inside Scoop for Law Students & New Lawyers",  Stinson LLP Podcast, Episode 1, Part 1 and 2

Publications

Kansas Bar Association 2020 and 2021 Kansas Annual Survey of Law, Volume XXXI, Chapter 11, Environmental Law, May 2020

Missouri Practice Series, Real Estate Transactions: Chapter 14 - Environmental Considerations with Respect to Real Property, 2020