William Brown died in 1940, and Lloyd worked in the pressroom of the Call and Post newspaper and at his uncle's shoe store to help support the family.

He then worked in a potato chip factory and used veteran's educational benefits to pay for education at The Ohio State University, where he received bachelor's degrees in political science and law and a juris doctor in 1955.

In 1971, Ohio Supreme Court justice Robert Morton Duncan was appointed to the federal bench, and Brown was appointed to the vacancy by Governor John J. Gilligan.

[2] On January 12, 1973, Governor Gilligan appointed Brown to the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.

He was elected to a six-year term in 1974, and re-elected in 1980, but declined to run again in 1986.