During the summer of 1992, Paul Brown was sponsored by Kirkland & Ellis as a PILI Fellow at the Legal Assistance Foundation’s Uptown Neighborhood office. Paul explains that he had an interesting mix of work including obtaining orders of protection for abused women, assisting tenants in disputes with their landlords, and helping clients with a variety of consumer and family law matters. Prior to joining Kirkland in September 1993, Paul served as a law clerk for Sixth Circuit US Court of Appeals Judge James Ryan. In 2002, Paul left Kirkland to accept an in-house position as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA), which is the national trade association for the 39 separate Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans. At BCBSA, Paul manages the day-to-day operations of a 30 person law department and, along with the General Counsel, provides legal counsel to BCBSA’s senior officers, board of directors, and board committees. Paul says that “because of my positive PILI Fellowship experiences, when I entered private practice I did quite a bit of pro bono work at Kirkland, including the extended representation of a client in a multi-year prisoner civil rights case and have continued doing pro bono as an in-house lawyer.” Paul also notes that “a few years ago I also drafted—with assistance from PILI—a corporate pro bono policy for BCBSA. My interest in pro bono began as a PILI Fellow.”
Originally published May 2010. Read more PILI Alumni Spotlights »