First African American appointed to serve as U.S. Attorney in state of Alabama

KENYEN BROWN IS AN ATTORNEY AND SHAREHOLDER at Maynard Cooper’s Mobile, Alabama law office. His practice focuses primarily on white collar criminal litigation, complex civil litigation, internal and governmental investigations, as well as compliance counseling. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Brown to serve as a United States Attorney, and in December 2009, the U.S. Senate confirmed his nomination. On January 15, 2010, Brown took the Oath of Office as U.S. Attorney, making him the first African American to serve in this position in the state of Alabama. For seven years, as U.S. Attorney, Brown directed the successful prosecution of a wide range of complex criminal and civil cases, with a particular emphasis on healthcare fraud.

Prior to his time as Southern Alabama’s U.S. Attorney, Brown started his career in the Montgomery County, Alabama District Attorney’s office in 1995. Shortly thereafter, in 1996, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Mobile, Alabama as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA). As an AUSA, Brown prosecuted and tried large illegal drug distribution organizations; instances of bank fraud, bank and labor union embezzlement, violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, counterfeiting, credit card\access device fraud, mail fraud, tax fraud and evasion, telemarketing fraud, worker’s compensation fraud, identity theft, and environmental crimes; as well as violent crimes such as bank robbery, carjacking, and firearms related offenses.

Kenyen Brown taking oath of officeIn 1999, Brown moved to Washington, D.C., to join the staff of the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee, where he worked for eight years and conducted numerous high profile Congressional ethics investigations while also heading up the Committee’s training and compliance efforts. Following his time with the U.S. Senate, he moved to the U.S. House Ethics Committee, where he served as the Acting Chief Counsel and Staff Director performing similar high profile work in the House until 2009, when he was called to serve as Alabama’s first African American U.S. attorney in Mobile.

Prior to accepting the post of U.S. Attorney, in 2008, and again in 2009, Brown was listed by Roll Call (a Capitol Hill publication) as one of the “Fabulous Fifty” Hill staffers. This honor noted him as one of the top 50 “Movers and Shakers Behind the Scenes of Capitol Hill” among all the staffers working in both the U.S. House and Senate. Brown retains close personal ties to former colleagues still working in Congress, the Department of Justice, and his former U.S. Attorney colleagues across the nation.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Brown received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law and his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Alabama. Brown and his wife Anna have a baby boy, Julius, and live in Mobile.

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