Melissa Cheryl Brown

Melissa C. Brown is a frequent lecturer at legal conventions and seminars. Ms. Brown has been recognized in America's Top Attorneys for over 15 years. She has studied International Mediation at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, Switzerland.

Ms. Brown is a certified specialist in Workers' Compensation as well as a national expert on Social Security Disability and Health Care Planning and decision-making. She is a law professor and published author.

Her practice includes serving as an Arbitrator for Workers' Compensation matters. Her legal treatise, Advising the Elderly or Disabled Client, is utilized by law schools throughout America as well as Elder Law, Disability and Personal Injury attorneys.

She holds a Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and is admitted to practice in state and federal court. Many of her appellate cases have paved new ground for injured and disabled workers, including several cases of “first impression” in such areas as age discrimination, serious and willful misconduct and representation of employees of Indian Tribes. She has also represented doctors and health care facilities in litigation matters involving reimbursement from insurance companies for patient care.

Her curriculum vitae reflects a 37-year commitment to providing legal services to the elderly and disabled in clinical, legal services, and private practice settings. She has been instrumental in developing public policy and legislative approaches to the resolution of disability, health care and aging issues.

She has spent considerable time in teaching and training law students, care providers, medical professionals, community services workers, paralegals and lawyers, and in writing and publishing practice materials for them. She presents legal and legislative information and analysis to unions, employer groups and organizations in various settings such as shop steward training, the Coalition of Organized Labor, the United Way Union and Community Relations programs, as well as to news reporters.

Ms. Brown is a law professor at the University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, where she teaches Elder Law and Social Policy. She also serves as the supervising attorney at the Elder Law and Health Clinic at McGeorge's Community Legal Services, where she oversees a select group of law students as they serve the elderly community on a pro-bono basis.

Ms. Brown is frequently called upon by attorneys and legislators to consult on personal injury settlements, medical malpractice settlements, conservatorships, special needs trusts and other matters with cross-over issues in Social Security retirement, disability, survivors, SSI, Medicare, Medi-Cal, In-Home Supportive services, elder law and long-term care.

Her legislative advocacy has addressed issues affecting disabled and senior citizens, as well as advocacy on behalf of injured workers. These efforts have included extensive work on California legislation dealing with durable powers of attorneys, probate court investigators, alternative dispute resolution and Medicare supplemental insurance issues, as well as workers' compensation legislation.

In addition to professional recognition through peer evaluations, recognition as one of Sacramento's Best Attorneys in the Sacramento Business Journal, Ms. Brown was also voted one of the top three Sacramento Lawyers by Sacramento News and Review readers in "Best Of" voting. She sits on the Larson's National Workers' Compensation Advisory Board, the editorial board of Lexis Nexis California Workers' Compensation, and is one of only 9 California attorneys inducted into the national College of Workers' Compensation.