Sharon M. Brown
Immediate Past President | Washington County Bar Association

Sharon graduated from Washington State University with a bachelor of science degree in Psychology. After doing better on the LSAT than the GRE, she decided her destiny was to enter law school and began night classes at the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now Seattle University School of Law) where she graduated in 1980. She began her legal career working with ERISA employee benefits and pension plans, then spent four years as a deputy prosecuting attorney, followed by seven years as an Assistant Attorney General and Section Chief for the Washington State Attorney General managing a branch office. She then entered private practice for fourteen years, spent as managing shareholder of a ten-attorney firm in Eastern Washington followed by a solo practice focusing on appellate work and serving as a mediator, arbitrator and judge pro tem for local courts. She holds a ‘BV’ rating from Martindale-Hubbell. She maintained continuous involvement since high school in volunteer work for local social service agencies as well as pro bono work during her law career. She completed graduate school evenings and weekends and earned a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology from Washington State University in 2001.

In 2005, Sharon took advantage of the reciprocity rules and moved to Oregon to be closer to her parents, taking a position as a Supervising Attorney with Legal Aid Services of Oregon in the Hillsboro Regional Office. She and her husband have raised four children, the youngest graduating from Liberty High School in Hillsboro in 2007, in addition to several foster children. They are the proud grandparents to Josiah, age 5. In January of 2010 she accepted her dream job position as the Statewide Pro Bono Program Manager for the Oregon Law Center, where she works to recruit, train and support pro bono attorneys around Oregon. Her position at Oregon Law Center is being terminated in October 2011 due to funding cuts and the effect of abysmal interest rates on IOLTA funding.

She has been active in the Washington County Bar Association since 2005 and serves as the President for the current year as well as being a voting member of the House of Delegates for the Oregon State Bar Association. She is an ex-officio member of the Oregon State Bar Pro Bono Committee and is active in the Oregon Women Lawyers. She also volunteers in fundraising efforts for the Washington County Domestic Violence Center and previously served as co-secretary and vice-chair of the Washington County Domestic Violence Intervention Council. She and her husband spend as much time at the beach as possible with their elderly dog and assorted relatives when not working.

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