Attorneys

John Brown is one of the firm's three founding partners. He practices in the areas of accountant's liability, director and officer liability, fidelity bond litigation, fiduciary and trusts and estates litigation, and estate planning, trust and probate law. Mr. Brown has taken a lead role in every significant accountant malpractice investigation the firm has undertaken, and has litigated cases against all of the national accounting firms. Mr. Brown has handled major cases in federal district and bankruptcy courts, and state courts in Texas, California, New York, Florida, Oregon, Michigan, Missouri, Delaware, Kansas, Arizona, Illinois, West Virginia, and Mississippi which have resulted in recoveries in excess of $200 million. In 2004 Mr. Brown and David Mullin successfully tried a major accounting malpractice case on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation against Grant Thornton in federal court in West Virginia. The judgment against Grant Thornton was affirmed by the Fourth Circuit in July 2011. Mr. Brown also served as lead counsel with Steve Hoard in the firm's successful representation of Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. (formerly Enron Corp.) to recover theft losses caused by Enron's former Chief Financial Officer and those acting in concert with him from Enron's insurers, resulting in the largest settlement of a crime policy coverage case in U.S. history.

Mr. Brown specializes in representing creditors' committees, trustees of litigation trusts established in bankruptcy proceedings, and receivers of federally insured financial institutions seeking to recover on various professional liability and fidelity bond claims on behalf of creditors. Most recently, Mr. Brown successfully represented the FDIC, as receiver, in its claims against certain former officers and directors of First National Bank of Arizona and First National Bank of Nevada.

For over twenty-five years, Mr. Brown has also successfully represented trustees, executors, guardians and beneficiaries, on both sides of the docket, in a wide variety of contested trust and estate issues. He also advises clients in connection with their private tax and estate planning, structuring their business interests, and carrying out their duties as trustees and executors.

Mr. Brown has been Board Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Estate Planning and Probate Law since 1986. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the California State Bar, and is a licensed certified public accountant in Texas and California. Mr. Brown is a member of the Amarillo Bar Association, the Panhandle Chapter of the Texas Society of CPAs, and the Amarillo Area Estate Planning Council (Vice-President, 1991-1992; President 1992-1993; Seminar Chair since 1990). Mr. Brown is also a co-chair of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee of the Texas Supreme Court (District 13).

Mr. Brown received his B.B.A. degree in Accounting with Distinction from the University of Hawaii in 1974. Following college, Mr. Brown joined the audit staff of Haskins & Sells (now Deloitte & Touche) in the San Francisco office, and became licensed as a certified public accountant in 1976. He received his J.D. degree with Honors from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1979. During law school, he served on the editorial staff of the Hastings Law Journal where he co-authored a published article with Dean Miguel de Capriles, former Dean of New York University Law School. While at Hastings Mr Brown was also a member of the Thurston Society and the Order of the Coif, both academic honor societies.