Our Team
Our Attorneys
Burton A. Brown,
Managing Partner
Burt was born and raised in western New York state. After attending Williamsville High School and graduating from the University of Buffalo, Burt taught business classes to high school seniors. From there, he went on to law school at Hamline Law School. After earning his J.D., he stayed in the Midwest and opened a practice in Chicago’s loop, specializing in criminal felony defense in state and federal courts. He later expanded the firm to include a second office and additional practice areas including estate planning and data privacy.
Burt has led numerous seminars on estate planning and other topics, often over dinner or breakfast. Burt is also a regular guest speaker to veterans groups and local chambers of commerce, where he and Bill Cook raise awareness about available veterans benefits and programs.
In his free time, Burt plays the banjo and fundraises for Misericordia and Knights of Columbus. His bluegrass group, Big Rock Bluegrass Band, played for charity at Misericordia’s Family Fest for over ten years. One year, they were joined by Special Consensus, a two-time Grammy nominated bluegrass band, and together they raised a considerable amount of money for Misericordia.
Burt Brown is licensed to practice in Illinois and has been admitted to the following courts:
U.S. Tax Court
U.S. Customs Court
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Illinois Supreme Court
Northern District of Illinois (General Bar and Trial Bar)
Eastern District of Wisconsin
Erie County (NY) Court
Illinois Courts
Atty. Burton A. Brown
Attorney William J. Cook
William J. Cook,
Of Counsel
Bill served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for 16 years in the special prosecutions unit as head of its computer fraud and abuse task force, and has experience with corporate internal investigations, trade secrets, data privacy and security, and regulatory compliance. After spending years prosecuting white-collar and blue-collar crimes, he now defends them. Himself a service-disabled Vietnam Combat Veteran, he has a passion for helping others veterans claim their benefits.
Bill has litigated over 85 jury trials in addition to numerous bench trials, and has written over 60 articles on internet security and systems security.
He currently serves on the U.S. Secret Service’s Chicago Electronic Crimes Task Force (CECTF), is a member of the FBI Infragard program, and works with the Fox Valley Veteran’s Resource Exchange, which he co-founded.
Bill Cook is licensed to practice in Illinois and has been admitted to the following courts:
U.S. Supreme Court
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
6th Circuit Court of Appeals
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals
Illinois Supreme Court
Nebraska Supreme Court
Northern District of Illinois (General Bar and Trial Bar)
Central District of California
Eastern District of Ohio
Central District of California
Fran McCormick,
Legal Assistant
Fran(cine) has extensive legal experience and has worked in the legal field for over 40 years - in many different areas of law. Fran was last employed at one of the top 10 corporate law firms in Chicago for 20 years – her work was focused on Intellectual Property, Criminal, Estate, Real Estate, Pharmaceutical, Bankruptcy, Litigation, Construction, Personal Injury, and other areas of law. Fran has been at the Law Offices of Burton A. Brown for a little over a year – and enjoys the challenges she is faced with working for clients who come to the Law Offices of Burton A. Brown for legal representation – and applies her extensive legal experience to work with existing, and new clients.
Fran McCormick
Patty Buckingham,
Office Manager
Patty has been a part of our team for over thirty years, managing the financial and administrative affairs of the law firm. In addition to those responsibilities, she also assists our attorneys with the following:
preparation of new guardianships
annual reporting for guardianships
organizing trial exhibits
scheduling trial witnesses
Patty Buckingham
Our Expert Partners
Rick Arnold, IT Disaster Recovery and Support, Arnold Consulting
Rick has worked with us on:
Data backup and recovery
Network management
Firewalls and unified threat management
Maintenance and troubleshooting
Adam Campbell, Private Investigator, Heritage Investigations
Over the past 40 years, Adam has worked with us on:
Surveillance
Evidence photography
Skip tracing
Service of process
Our Affiliations
