65.6 F
San Diego
Monday, Mar 18, 2024
-Advertisement-

Former EDC Chair Thriving at Meyers Nave

LAW: Equity Partner Janice P. Brown is at Top of Her Profession

One of San Diego’s top attorneys and former chair of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Janice P. Brown was raised in a place, she says, “where people of color were less than zero point zero zero zero percent.”

Her father’s military work landed the family in Montana, and as a child, Brown was the focus of ignorance and prejudice. Years of jarring racial epithets about her skin color caused her a lot of distress, she recalled. Even as she was a model student, cheerleader and member of her high school track and field team, she was often – and easily – hurt by the things she heard, stung by words that were intended to cause her grief.

“I actually was really tender hearted when I was a kid and I could get my feelings hurt really easy,” she said. “I just wanted to people to like me. People would say some racist thing and I would ‘boo hoo.’ It was not an easy environment to grow up in. And even though I was active and a popular kind of kid, I was always getting my feelings hurt. I was that kind of person for a very long time.”

Many decades later and geographically far removed from those childhood challenges, Brown is at the top of her profession, with more than 35 years of trial, arbitration and appellate experience in state and federal courts, and proud of being an equity partner at Meyers Nave.

“Less than 1% of Black women are equity partners,” Brown said. “Our firm actually has two of us (Black women) out of 11, with Camille Pating the other.”

Brown is a Principal in Meyers Nave’s Labor and Employment Practice and Workplace Investigations Practice, her distinguished career beginning after graduating first with a journalism degree from the University of Montana in 1981, then adding a law degree from Gonzaga University.

Brown’s career started when she joined the U.S. Justice Department in 1984. There, she quickly demonstrated outstanding legal expertise that earned her membership in the Honors Program and the “Outstanding Trial Attorney” and “Trial Lawyer of the Year” awards in less than three years.

In her work for the Justice Department, Brown landed in San Diego, fell in love with the beauty of the county in 1988, and made it her home. She took her first local job at Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek in 1988 and was with the firm until late 1999.

Brown is recognized as a pioneer in the legal profession. She was the founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Brown Law Group, a woman- and minority-owned employment and business litigation firm that served local corporations and Fortune 50 companies nationwide from 2003 until it merged with Meyers Nave in 2020.

A trusted advisor to clients, inspirational mentor to colleagues and influential leader in advancing diversity throughout the legal profession, she is also a sought-after speaker and consultant for diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. She was on the board of the National Association of Minority & Women Owned Law Firms and is still involved with the group.

When she was with the EDC, with the support of CEO Mark Cafferty and COO Lauree Sahba, she helped the group focus more on diversity.

“We had a continuous message – it was about lifting all boats,” Brown said.

For employment law and litigation matters, Brown provides employers with a comprehensive range of employment law advice and counseling, training, internal investigations, and administrative hearings and litigation.

For business litigation, Brown serves as a strategic partner with clients involved in commercial litigation as defendants or plaintiffs. Her commercial litigation clients include the EDC, the Los Angeles Chargers, Junior Achievement, Jerome’s Furniture, XEROX, the NCAA and Bank of America.

Brown credits her success early on to her first mentor in San Diego – Bonnie Redding. The two were colleagues and friends in the early 1990s until Redding died in 1995, just months after she introduced Brown as the California Association of Black Lawyers “Lawyer of the Year.”

“Bonnie was one of first women to be a really significant lawyer,” Brown said. “She had all these honors and a great reputation. She was very direct with me and kind, and she would tell me hard things about success. She’d say that I looked like a little girl the way I dressed. She told me, ‘You need to dress where you’re going, not where you’ve been.’ She introduced me to people in town that were politically savvy.”

Brown, who lives in Kensington, said now she works to provide inspiration to others much as Redding did for her. “I love to see people grow beyond their own limitations, because I’ve grown beyond mine,” she said.

Helping others thrive was the impetus behind the business she founded in 2012: Beyond Law. That enterprise helps provide lawyers entrepreneurial skills that are necessary for success in the legal market. “In order to be successful in this business, you have to understand business – and people don’t teach you about business,” Brown said. “They teach you how to practice, but they don’t teach you how to be a successful lawyer in a broader sense.”

-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-