William H. Brown III (born January 19, 1928) is an American attorney. In 1963, he became a partner at the law firm of Norris Schmidt Green Harris Higginbotham & Brown, Philadelphia's first black-owned law firm. Brown was appointed to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) by President

Lyndon Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

in 1968 and named its Chairman by President

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

in 1969. He was the fourth Chairman of the EEOC, serving from May 5, 1969, to December 23, 1973. Today, he is senior counsel to Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP.

Education and early career

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Brown graduated from

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

in 1952, and from the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and olde ...

in 1955. He began working in private practice after graduating, during a time when African-Americans had few, if any, options to practice in established law firms. 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 Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

Harris Higginbotham & Brown. Brown also served for some time as the Chief of the Fraud unit and as a Deputy District Attorney for the City of Philadelphia.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Brown was appointed to the EEOC by President

in 1968 and named the Commission's Chairman by President

in 1969. He was the fourth Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). He served in that role until December 23, 1973. 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 Utility ratemaking is the formal regulatory process in the United States by which public utilities set the prices (more commonly known as "rates") they will charge consumers. Ratemaking, typically carried out through "rate cases" before a public ut ...

being presented by

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

to the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, each staffed with 30 lawyers.

Later career

After his time as Chairman of the EEOC, Brown returned to the private practice of law, and is still practicing at the Philadelphia-based law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP. He is nationally known in the field of employment discrimination, and has also developed extensive experience with alternative dispute resolution. He has served as a mediator for Federal District Court for Eastern District of Pennsylvania and as an arbitrator for American Arbitration Association. A notable recognition came when in 1985, he was chosen to chair the Philadelphia Special Investigation Commission investigating the

1985 MOVE bombing The 1985 MOVE bombing was the destruction of residential homes in the Osage neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, by the Philadelphia Police Department during a standoff and firefight with the radical communal organization MO ...

References

External links

His professional biography on the Schnader web page.

* ttp://www.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/35th/voices/brown.html Letter Brown wrote at the end of his tenure with the EEOC, published on the 35th anniversary of the organization.
An article from the July 20, 2007 edition of ''The Legal Intelligencer'' on the law firm of Norris Schmidt Green Harris Higginbotham & Brown.

Records from Temple University's Urban Archives on the Philadelphia Special Investigation (MOVE) Commission.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, William H. 1928 births Chairs of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Living people Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel Pennsylvania lawyers Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni Temple University alumni University of Pennsylvania Law School alumni Nixon administration personnel