Stephen Douglas Brown

A Californian native, Attorney Stephen D. Brown, headed east to attend law school in Illinois in 1996 and remained since. He attended Northern Illinois University School of Law and graduated Cum Laude in 1999. While in law school, Mr. Brown participated in law review, was a semi-finalist for moot court in 1997, and he was the 1997 Corpus Juris Secundum award winner for Civil Procedure.

Although Mr. Brown’s first job as an attorney was for the Kane County State’s Attorney, his first job in the legal field started when he was in high school as a file clerk for Rich & Ezer, a medium sized (AV) rated firm in Los Angeles, California. After his graduation from law school, he also worked as a paralegal for successor firm Ezer & Williamson.

In his public service career that lasted fifteen years, Stephen was an Assistant Kane County State’s Attorney in Kane County. Mr. Brown served in the criminal, civil, and family justice divisions. In the criminal division, Mr. Brown prosecuted offenders for a wide variety of criminal offenses. He also handled commitment and medication proceedings involving mentally ill individuals.

As an Assistant State’s Attorney in the civil division, Mr. Brown was attorney for the County of Kane. He represented Kane County in litigation that was set in Kane County, DuPage County, Winnebago County, the Illinois Industrial Commission, and the Federal Court in Chicago. Mr. Brown handled cases involving property owned by Kane County, personal injury related to Kane County employees, worker’s compensation proceedings, election violations, and ordinance violations in connection with the Kane County Health Department and the Kane County Development Department. Mr. Brown also authored numerous legal opinion briefs for different agencies of Kane County government.

As an attorney for the Family Justice Division, Mr. Brown represented the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) in proceedings for the establishment and enforcement of child support orders. In this capacity, he frequently participated in proceedings in Kane County family court to establish and modify child support orders and for contempt of court. As part of his representation of HFS, Mr. Brown worked with HFS to correct erroneous withholding orders when they were discovered. Stephen treasures the commemorative plaque he received from the Child Support Division for his many years of outstanding service to be among his most prized possessions.  This plaque is currently hanging in his office.

In 2015, Mr. Brown left the State’s Attorney’s Office and was an Associate for Douglas B. Warlick & Associates.   As an associate, Mr. Brown successfully tried cases related to custody, dissolution, and support. In 2016, Mr. Brown expanded his practice to include mediation and participation in proceedings as a court-appointed Guardian ad Litem.  In 2017, Stephen founded the Law Office of Stephen D. Brown.