Allyn Larrabee Brown (born

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, October 26, 1883; died in Norwich October 22, 1973) was a lawyer, judge, and chief justice of the

Connecticut Supreme Court The Connecticut Supreme Court, formerly known as the Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors, is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It consists of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The seven justices sit in ...

. Brown attended the

Norwich Free Academy The Norwich Free Academy (NFA), founded in 1854 and in operation since 1856, is a coeducational independent school for students between the 9th and 12th grade. Located in Norwich, Connecticut, the Academy serves as the primary high school for Norw ...

and

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

, graduating in 1905. He was a 1908 graduate of

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and joined his father's law firm of Brown & Perkins in 1909 after being admitted to the bar in January 1909. In 1917 Brown was appointed as the first

public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...

New London County New London County is in the southeastern corner of Connecticut and comprises the Norwich-New London, Connecticut Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut Combined Statistical Area. There i ...

. In 1916 Brown was elected mayor of Norwich, being the youngest mayor ever to hold that position up to that time. He was elected to the state senate in 1920. In 1921 he was appointed to the Superior Court. In 1935 he was raised to the Supreme Court, with the appointment taking effect in 1936, and in 1950 became chief justice. He retired in October 1953 on reaching the judicial retirement age of 70. Brown served as trustee or director of a number of educational institutions - the Norwich Free Academy, the

Mansfield Training School The Mansfield Training School and Hospital was a state school for people with developmental disabilities located in Mansfield, Connecticut, United States. It was active from 1860 to 1993. Its former campus, located at the junction of Connecticu ...

, Brown University, and

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...

. He received honorary L.L.D. degrees from Brown University in 1938 and

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

in 1950. He married Marion M. Brown on June 4, 1913; they had two children, Frances H. and Allyn L. Brown Jr. Allyn L. Brown Jr. became a lawyer and served as president of the Connecticut Bar Association and state's attorney for New London County.http://www.cslib.org/memorials/brownal.htm Connecticut State Library bio, from the Connecticut Reports

References

Connecticut lawyers Chief Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court Harvard Law School alumni Brown University alumni 1973 deaths Wesleyan University people 1883 births Public defenders 20th-century American judges Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court 20th-century American lawyers {{Connecticut-state-judge-stub