He joined with a group of several other African American lawyers formed what is considered by many to be Philadelphia's first African-American law firm, Norris Schmidt Green Harris Higginbotham & Brown.

[2] Brown also served for some time as the Chief of the Fraud unit and as a Deputy District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia.

[4] During his time as Chairman, the EEOC took significant steps in establishing its role in American life and in fighting discrimination, including seeking to intercede in a telephone rate case being presented by AT&T to the Federal Communications Commission (asserting that because of discriminatory practices, costs for telephone services were higher than they would have been otherwise), securing the enforcement powers granted to the EEOC, and the establishment of five regional litigating centers in Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Denver, each staffed with thirty lawyers.

[citation needed] After his time as Chairman of the EEOC, Brown returned to the private practice of law, and as of 2016 was still practicing at the Philadelphia-based law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP.

[5] He is nationally known in the field of employment discrimination, and has also developed extensive experience with alternative dispute resolution.