Geoffrey Francis Brown (born May 20, 1943), known as Jeff Brown, is an American attorney and retired government official. From 2001 to 2007, Brown served as a member of the

California Public Utilities Commission The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or PUC) is a regulatory agency that regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies. In addition ...

Early life and education

Brown was born May 20, 1943, in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and attended schools in both San Francisco and

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

. Brown is the nephew of former Governor

Pat Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he ...

and the cousin of former Governor

Jerry Brown Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. (born April 7, 1938) is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

and former State Treasurer

Kathleen Brown Kathleen Lynn Brown (born September 25, 1945) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 29th treasurer of California from 1991 to 1995. Brown unsuccessfully ran for governor of California in the 1994 election. Early life and e ...

. Brown received his bachelor's degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 1964, and graduated from

San Francisco Law School San Francisco Law School is a private, for-profit law school in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest evening law school in the Western United States. History Founded in 1909, the school became non-profit in 1941 and mo ...

in 1970. He served two stints in the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its origins to 1 ...

(1965 and 1968–1969) as an enlisted man.

Career

Brown was admitted to the bar in January 1971 and practiced with his father until joining the

San Francisco Public Defender's Office The San Francisco Public Defender's Office is an agency of the Government of San Francisco. Since 1921, it has provided legal assistance to indigent individuals charged with violations of California state law by the San Francisco District Attorn ...

in October 1971. In 1978 he was elected

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, Belgium, Hungary and Si ...

of San Francisco and was re-elected five times. During Brown's tenure, the Public Defender's Office grew to a staff of 83 attorneys and 40 support personnel. Brown was succeeded in his position by

Kimiko Burton Kimiko Burton, formerly Kimiko Burton-Cruz,* *https://web.archive.org/web/20150910151824/http://m.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/the-last-of-the-burtons/Content?oid=2144076 is an American attorney and government official. Burton is serving a second t ...

, the daughter of John Burton. Brown was appointed by Governor

Gray Davis Joseph Graham "Gray" Davis Jr. (born December 26, 1942) is an American attorney and former politician who served as the 37th governor of California from 1999 until he was recalled and removed from office in 2003. He is the second state governor ...

in January 2001 as a Commissioner of the

and confirmed in March by the State Senate. His term expired in January 2007 after which he joined the

John F. Kennedy University College of Law John F. Kennedy University was a private university based in California with offices in San Jose, California. The university was founded in 1965 to offer degrees and certificates for non-traditional higher education students, taught mostly by adj ...

, teaching Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Evidence. He was, for a time, a member of faculty at the

Hastings College of Law The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco (abbreviated as UC Law SF or UC Law) is a public law school in San Francisco, California, United States. It was known as the University of California, Hastings College of the Law (a ...

but as of December 2022, he is no longer listed in their faculty directory.

Personal life

A widower, he has three grown daughters, Miranda, Simone and Olivia.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20060206152954/http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/static/aboutcpuc/commissioners/02brown/index.htm 1943 births Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni San Francisco Law School alumni Brown family (California) Public defenders {{US-law-bio-stub