[1] Brown worked as associate attorney for a short time at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease before joining the military.
He served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, United States Army 1957–1959, entering as a first lieutenant and leaving as a captain.
He then returned to Vorys in 1960, became partner in 1965, and left the firm in 1982 to devote time to writing.
He did not run for re-election, because he found a publisher for his first novel, Presumption of Guilt, in 1991, and decided to return to writing.
He also has taught as an adjunct professor at the Ohio State University College of Law from 1997 to 2001.