The World According to Brent

“Fathers and sons,” says Brent Barton. “You know, it could be chess, it could be building a motor together, but sometimes there’s a joint activity by which the father, consciously or not, transmits a lot of important life lessons to the son.”

Since Barton is talking about himself and his father, Bill Barton, the legendary plaintiff’s personal injury attorney, with whom he now partners at Barton Trial Attorneys in Newport, you might assume he’s talking about the law. He isn’t. 

“For us,” he says, “that was basketball.”

Brent, who is 6-foot-3, played in high school, and for years Bill has served as “life coach” for the Portland State University men’s basketball team. “I grew up playing basketball with my dad,” he says.

They both love the Portland Trail Blazers, for whom Brent has half-season tickets, even though its sole NBA championship happened in 1977—before Brent was born. “The Blazers are the medium through which God punishes me,” he says.

A century or more of Bartons spent their lives cutting and shipping trees—often at great peril. “I’m probably the first guy in eight generations of my family who hasn’t worked in the woods,” he says. “Dad grew up in a poor logging family, oldest of four kids, and they were poor: no running water, traveling all over the Northwest—a year here and a year there in logging camps and small logging towns. It was a hard life and brutal work. … He was the transitional figure—first in his family to finish high school, much less college, much less law school.” 

By the time Barton was coming of age, his father was a famous trial attorney known for groundbreaking cases in psychological injury, clergy abuse, and personal injury law, earning national recognition for his legal expertise and advocacy. “But more than that,” Brent says, “he was just a terrific guy and a great dad.”

Political engagement came naturally to Brent. He worked as an intern at the White House in the final year of the Clinton administration, and entered the state Legislature at 28 with a vision of creating meaningful change. His approach was collaborative. He worked tirelessly on committees, building relationships across party lines and focusing on practical solutions to community challenges.

“All the really important legislation, all of the consequential big-lift stuff, was always a team effort,” he says. “My hope was always to make everyone’s life better.”

He even got to mix business and pleasure—passing a bill creating a Trail Blazers license plate. “It’s hardly the most important thing I did in the Legislature, but it’s certainly the most tangible. I see that license plate all the time.”

Glad for the experience, he’s also glad he left in 2016. “American political discourse has really changed,” he says. “Trump brought out the worst in the system, supercharged the worst attributes in both parties, in my view—the world according to Brent. There’s hardly any place for someone rational. But you preen on YouTube and beat your chest and just be angry, and there’s a place for you in politics. I have no interest in that kind of show.”

Barton keeps his toe in public policy as president-elect of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association. And he uses the tools he developed as a political candidate in his practice.

“Jury selection is a lot like running a town hall meeting,” Barton says. “It’s almost like you’re a conductor organizing a group discussion, trying to get a group to come together as one voice, including people who have very different perspectives on divisive issues, making sure we can be civil and listen to each other as a community. There’s a magic there that happens.”

Barton, who lives and works in Portland though the firm is based in Newport, is a meticulous researcher and always has been: political science degree from Stanford, master’s from Cambridge, J.D. at Harvard. He specializes in cases involving children with profound disabilities, often related to traumatic births. He spends hours studying medical records, consulting experts and preparing for depositions.

“I’m a research nerd, and my preparation is probably a lot harder than I make it appear. But it’s connecting with the families I represent that brings me the most joy.” 

He also knows something of what it’s like to go through such experiences. He has two sons, Emerson and Henry, named after the American philosophers Ralph Waldo and David Thoreau, and there were prenatal complications with Henry’s birth in 2018. 

It resulted in a long hospital stay for mother and child while Barton cared for 2-year-old Emerson.

“I developed a much deeper understanding and interest in medical issues,” says Barton. “I think it’s made me a better lawyer.”