After her tenure as clerk of courts ended, Brown spent several months as the village administrator of Dolton, Illinois.

At Webster High School, Brown was captain of the girl's varsity basketball team, and graduated in the top ten percent of her class.

Brown studied at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and graduated magna cum laude.

[6] Brown unsuccessfully ran for City treasurer of Chicago in 1999, losing to incumbent Miriam Santos by a 2.8% margin.

[6] Cook County voters elected Brown as the Clerk of the Circuit Court in 2000, and reelected her four additional times.

As the official keeper of records for all judicial matters brought into one of the largest unified court systems in the world, Brown was responsible for managing an annual operating budget of more than $100 million and had a workforce of over 1,800 employees.

"[8] In August 2015, the slating committee of the Cook County Democratic Party narrowly voted to endorse Brown for reelection to a fifth term in the March 2016 primary elections.

[9][10] In early October 2015, the Federal Bureau of Investigation executed a search warrant at Brown's home and seized her County-issued cell phone.

[17] In 2024, journalist Gregory Pratt recalled that Brown received loyal support from "'the church ladies' –older Black women voters who worship every Sunday and gave her their backing."

Pratt also observed that Brown had benefited from the lack of interest from "big-hitter" politicians in seeking the office of circuit court clerk.

[7][22][23][24] Despite the scandals she had faced, Brown attempted to run for mayor of Chicago in 2019, but was removed from the ballot for failing to complete the required paperwork.

[28] This federal oversight of the office's hiring and employment practices would not cease until November 2022, during the tenure of Brown's successor.

[27] In 2014, Natasha Korecki of the Chicago Sun-Times described Brown as, "synonymous with questionable ethics and woefully outdated technology.

"[7] In 2017, the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune characterized Brown as leading a, "patronage-packed office...stuck in a land that time forgot," with a, "well-earned reputation as a fortress of inefficiency.

[18]Projects and services developed under Brown's leadership include: Two Electronic filing (e-filing),[31] a Clerk of the Circuit Court mobile app: "Court Clerk Mobile Connect,"[32] an Online Traffic Ticket Payment System,[33] an Electronic Tickets (eTickets) system, Mortgage Surplus Search,[34][35] SmartForms (Online Order of Protection service), Smart Kiosks (court information terminals), and IDMS (Imaging Document Management System).

[39][40] In 2012, the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune criticized Brown for, "years of failed assurances to modernize the obsolete, paper-choked office she heads.

[41] In late-2017, Brown announced that an e-filing system that the Illinois Supreme Court had mandated be created for lawsuits and other civil cases was ready to be launched.

The lawsuit argued that these alleged failures on the part of Brown's office endangered survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.

[45] In November 2020, Brown was caught by WGN-TV holding a retirement party that appeared to possibly violate the city and state's 50-person limit on gatherings amid the pandemic.

[51] After winning election to a fourth term several months later, Brown promised to stop accepting campaign contributions from her employees.

[52] In May 2006, Brown chaired the host committee for a Chicago fundraiser to support the reelection of Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Information technology contractor Mark St. Pierre, who had worked contracts for both the city of New Orleans and Cook County government and contributed to both Brown and Nagin's political campaigns, organized the event.

Ethics concerns related to conflict of interest were raised by the newspaper, which noted that signatures on documents indicated that Brown had directly involved herself in her office's the handling of the probe's subpoenas.

The newspaper also alleged that Brown had been involved in securing the granting of sizable amount of money to the group from the Illinois state government.

[67] In March 2019, a federal indictment charged Donald Danagher with bribery, alleging a pay-for-contract scheme which involved making donations to Brown's campaign and scholarship funds in exchange for his debt collection business receiving a contract.

[73] In late 2019, Brown's office had a class-action lawsuit brought against it alleging that it had charged illegal fees to people seeking child support enforcement.

[45] She also faced a separate lawsuit alleging failure to send notices of virtual hearings in a timely fashion during the pandemic.