His law practice clients included many Pennsylvania politicians Israel Wilson Durham, Boies Penrose, and the William Scott Vare.

Ending Prohibition was the dominant issue, and in public Brown took a lukewarm position, favoring a state referendum to consider modifying the Volstead Act.

[3] In private, he supported repeal but could not come out in public against prohibition due to his political connections to President Herbert Hoover.

[4] During the primary, in contrast to the other candidates (Gifford Pinchot, Thomas Wharton Phillips Jr., Joseph R. Grundy), Brown declined to take part in an open discussion about Republican issues sponsored by the Pennsylvania League of Woman Voters because they invited Joseph D. Herben, a Negro candidate.

The son, Francis Shunk Brown Jr., would serve as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas.