Melissa Brown
Melissa Brown is a frequent lecturer at legal conventions and seminars. Ms. Brown has been recognized in America’’s Top Attorneys for more than 10 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. Her practice includes serving as Mediator and Arbitrator for workers’ compensation and civil litigation 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 degree from Loyola Law School 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 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 thirty 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 Faculty Fellow at McGeorge School of Law and Fellow of its Institute on Health and Aging Law and Policy.
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 and long-term care.
Her legislative advocacy has addressed issues affecting disabled and senior citizens, as well as extensive advocacy on behalf of injured workers. These efforts have included extensive work on the 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 and superior academic credentials, Ms. Brown was voted one of the top three Sacramento Lawyers by Sacramento News and Review readers in “Best Of” voting.
