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A screenshot of Attorney Scott Brown and County Mayor David Crowley at their appointment hearing on Tuesday, July 23, 2024.
The Milwaukee County Council is preparing to appoint a new corporation counsel for county government.
The job provides legal advisory and litigation services across county government, including both the executive and legislative branches, and was made available when former corporation counsel Margaret Down moved to statewide broadcaster Civic Media.
Acting Corporation Counsel Scott Brown received unanimous approval from the Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee. The full County Commission will ultimately have to approve the appointment, which is likely.
Brown graduated from Wake Forest University and received his law degree from Rutgers Law School in 2005. That same year, he began his career as a judicial clerk for now-retired Judge Frederick Shook. He then joined the Philadelphia Bar Association and spent six years as a public defender representing indigent clients in criminal cases. In 2012, Brown began practicing in private practice with Niebler, Pysick, Carrig, Jelencik & Hanley LLP in Menomonee Falls.
Brown joined the Milwaukee City Attorney’s Office in October 2020, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, he served as chief counsel to the city’s Health Department amid the turmoil of the pandemic. In a letter supporting Brown’s appointment, Mayor Cavalier Johnson said, “He provided critical guidance on public health measures and ensured that the City’s response was legally appropriate, effective and coordinated.”
Brown joined the corporation counsel’s office in 2018 but left to join the city attorney’s office. But after the election of former city attorney Tierman Spencer, Brown became one of several city attorneys to resign amid Spencer’s scandals, including workplace harassment allegations. Brown returned to the county’s corporation counsel’s office in 2021.
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County Executive David Crowley appeared before the commission’s Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and urged supervisors to support Brown’s appointment. “Brown’s role in advising elected officials and county leaders on complex legal issues will be invaluable,” Crowley said.
The mayor noted that Brown has served as lead counsel for the county’s contracting and procurement process and was also involved in a large-scale multidistrict litigation effort against opioid manufacturers and distributors in his previous role.
Scott also received letters of recommendation from Colleen Foley, executive director of the Milwaukee Legal Aid Society, Andrew Phillips, president and CEO of Attres Law Firm, and Makda Fessahai, vice president of human resources at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the city’s former chief human resources officer.
“My leadership has been and will continue to be based on the principles of inclusivity, transparency and serving the public interest,” Brown told supervisors.
He said he plans to work to modernize the office to make it more “efficient and effective” and will continue to provide advice to mitigate legal risks before they arise and help government officials make proactive, rather than reactive, decisions.
When asked by Commissioner Justin Bielinski if he’d learned anything from his experience representing the city during the pandemic, Brown said he’d learned the importance of finding the right people and moving quickly, telling supervisors that if the city made any missteps early on, it was likely because they didn’t act sooner.
