Brita Haugland Cantrell is a trial lawyer whose practice is focused on products liability defense and family law litigation. Her expertise includes all aspects of family law litigation, including complex business valuations and asset and debt apportionment as well as custody, child support, alimony and guardianship matters.
In addition to her civil litigation and counseling practice, Brita also frequently handles pro bono litigation, has been a volunteer advocate for Legal Aid of Oklahoma, and has served by court appointment as a guardian ad litem.
Brita’s legal career spans both the private and public sectors. Upon graduating from law school in 1987, she worked as an associate with a Tulsa-based law firm for two years before transitioning her practice and serving as assistant attorney general for the State of Oklahoma from 1989 to 1994. As the state’s lead environmental attorney, she specialized in environmental law litigation in administrative proceedings, state courts and federal appellate matters. In one particularly high-profile case, Arkansas et al. v. Oklahoma, 503 U.S. 91, 16 (1992), she represented the state first on appeal to the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals from a decision of the Environmental Protection Agency, and subsequently on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as counsel with Attorney General Susan Loving and Assistant Attorney General Robert Butkin. She returned to private practice with the law firm of Eldridge Cooper Steichen & Leach in 2000 and subsequently joined McAfee & Taft when the two firms combined in 2011.
Her prior career experience also includes serving as executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of The Nature Conservancy from 1994 to 2000.
Brita is a graduate of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and the founding chairman of the Environmental Law Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association. She is currently serving her second five-year term as a member of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality Board. During this tenure, she has been elected twice to serve as chairman of the board.