News @ Georgia Law November 2013 Alumni Profile
Name: Charles H. Brown
Title: Of Counsel
Employer Name: Brown Rountree PC
Location: Statesboro, Ga.
Georgia Law graduation year: 1963
Other degree(s)/institution(s): B.A. / University of Georgia / 1962
1. Why did you choose to attend Georgia Law?
I went to undergrad at Georgia, and liked it so much, I never considered going any place else.
2. What is your most memorable experience from your time at Georgia Law?
That's easy. At that time, we took the bar exam while still in law school. The results were posted on a board in the law school, so as to be available to all students. Learning from the list I had passed was a great moment.
3. Who was your favorite law professor? Why?
Vernon Chafin and Perry Sentell. Dr. Chafin loved his subject matter, got into it, and his enthusiasm for the subject carried over to his students. How else could anyone be interested in the esoterica of "shifting property interests," whatever that is. But I am sure Dr. Chafin knows. Little did I know when I took muni-corps from Professor Sentell that I would wind up years later really applying what I learned in representing two countries, and I served for several years as a city council member.
4. What was your favorite thing about living in Athens?
Athens is a quintessential college town – it's right at the university's door, walkable, filled with coffee shops, bars and restaurants.
5. Where was your favorite place to study during law school?
The Law Library.
6. What advice would you give to current Georgia Law students?
Take full advantage of the opportunity to learn – surely it will assure one is a better lawyer.
7. What did you enjoy most about your time as a partner at Brown Rountree in Statesboro, Ga.?
Trial practice – while I had a general practice, the jury's knock on the door with a verdict is a riveting moment when you relive all your work and preparation – it's the essence of our system.
8. What advice would you give someone wanting to become a partner in a law firm?
Work hard and be ethical, all the time and everywhere, no matter the practices of others – and that is not easy.
9. Please give a brief description of your current responsibilities as of counsel for Brown Rountree.
I assist on specific projects where the firm's lawyers think I can help.
10. Where in Hungary did you teach a law course for three weeks pro bono?
University of Debrecen, City of Debrecen, in northeast Hungary, near Ukraine and Rumania.
11. Why did you decide to teach a law course in Hungary?
I know so little of Eastern Europe. Hungary, like some of its neighbors, was behind the Iron Curtain for more than 40 years. I was curious about how a totalitarian system in place for so long had affected legal and economic institutions.
12. What did the experience teach you?
That Hungarians, politics notwithstanding, share the same goals and aspirations we do in the West.
13. What do you enjoy doing in your free time? What are your hobbies/interests?
Hiking and reading.
14. How do you stay up to date on legal issues and trends?
Reading.
15. What book/resource do you find yourself referencing the most?
I learn about economics and governing from The Wall Street Journal. The paper's editorial page, with which I often disagree, never influences its straight up news coverage.
16. What would you consider to be your greatest accomplishment in life?
That is easy – striving to be a good husband and father and often missing the mark, and being forgiven for doing so.
17. If you could share an afternoon with anyone, with whom would you choose to spend it?
My wife – she is my best friend and adviser.
18. When you look out your office window, what do you see?
The opportunity to serve people.