Eden Rose Brown, JD - BIOGRAPHY

Attorney Eden Rose Brown is dedicated to providing comprehensive, highly personalized counsel in wealth preservation strategies, family legacy design, and estate, tax and charitable planning. As the firm's founder, she holds the highest standard of client services, scholarship and lawyer accessibility. She serves her clients by first listening closely to their goals, dreams and concerns. She then works with her clients to develop superior plans that reflect the clients' own unique situations, while putting her knowledge and experience to work for their benefit. She is committed to helping her clients understand that the foundation of estate planning is not just saving tax dollars, but also appreciating the value of planning for themselves and their loved ones.

EDUCATION: Ms. Brown received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Northwestern School of Law, Lewis & Clark College.

EXPERIENCE: Ms. Brown served as a United States Air Force Judge Advocate and Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1989 to 1993.  She served in support of the Gulf War in 1991. During war operations, then Captain Brown supervised the design, drafting and execution of over 8000 wills, trusts and supporting documents for deploying troops.  President George H.W. Bush awarded Captain Brown the United States Meritorious Service Medal for her efforts during the Gulf War and the subsequent Philippine evacuation crisis.

After her active duty tour, Ms. Brown moved back to Salem, Oregon to open her own estate planning firm. Known for her unique and comprehensive values-based, client-centered practice approach, Ms. Brown concentrates her practice in the areas of wealth preservation, family legacy design, probate and trust administration, and highly customized estate, tax and charitable planning.

Currently serving as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserve, Ms. Brown remains active as a military judge advocate.  From 1993 to 2001, she served her state and country as the State Judge Advocate for Air for the Oregon Air National Guard.  In 1999 she was appointed to the Pentagon-based Judge Advocate General’s Air National Guard Advisory Council.  Her work for the Guard and the Council has taken her throughout the world, including deployment to Central America where she served as a Spanish language translator for medical teams on remote humanitarian missions. 

AUTHOR/PRESENTER: Co-author and -editor of Giving – Philanthropy for Everyone, a comprehensive guide to philanthropy and estate planning, published by Quantum Press  (2003, 419 pages).

A frequent lecturer on estate and charitable planning topics, Ms. Brown has presented numerous training and educational seminars to attorneys, allied professionals, corporations and non-profit organizations, including A.G. Edwards, New York Life, Edward Jones, Solomon Smith Barney, the Willamette Valley Estate Planning Council, Oregon Symphony Association, Bank of the Cascades, Wells Fargo Bank, the Oregon State Bar, National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, PBS, and the American Red Cross, among others.

Ms. Brown has appeared as a guest on radio and television, speaking on charitable giving, taxation, and estate and family legacy planning. 

She is a frequent contributor to regional newspapers and magazines, and writes monthly legal columns for local and national publications.

A nationally-recognized authority on estate planning, Ms. Brown has been quoted in The American Bar Journal, Investment News, New Hampshire Bar Journal, Cat Fancy Magazine, Lawyers USA, and The Oregonian, among others, andwas interviewed for NPR’s This American Life, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and Fortune Magazine. A leader in the area of estate planning for pets, she recently appeared as a featured speaker at the National Animal Law Conference.  In 2008, Ms. Brown is scheduled to appear with Hugh Downs in the PBS National Report Series, The Graying of America.

In 2002, Ms. Brown designed and introduced the “Estate Planner’s Practice Development, Management, and Marketing System,” a complete client-centered, counseling-based practice system dedicated to improving the practices and services of estate planning attorneys and staff nationwide. She is a frequent speaker for national and regional legal organizations on practice development, office management and marketing strategies.

RECOGNITION: Twice named one of the “Top 100 Attorneys in the United States” by Worth Magazine.
2006 and 2007 Oregon Super Lawyer Award (peer selected, awarded to 5% of Oregon attorneys). Selected for Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American Law, 2008 editions.
                                
MEMBERSHIP: Ms. Brown is licensed to practice law in Oregon and Hawaii and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States. She is a founding member of the National Network of Estate Planning Attorneys, The Advisor’s Forum, and Wealthcounsel, LLC; Life Member of the Judge Advocates’ Association and National Guard Association of the United States; and a long-time member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; Willamette Valley Estate Planning Council; Mid-Valley Development Professionals, the Mid-Valley Tax Council, and the American Legion.

Ms. Brown has been a distinguished member of the WealthCounsel National Study Group, a small, invitation-only group of nationally recognized estate planning professionals. The Group meets quarterly to learn directly from the most widely recognized experts in the country, the most current information on advanced estate planning concepts, strategies and changes in the law.

COMMUNITY: Ms. Brown is a member of numerous civic organizations and is a past Board Member of the Willamette Humane Society, Chemeketa Community College Foundation, Salem’s Riverfront Carousel, the Oregon Jewish Community Foundation, Cedar Sinai Park, and the Marion-Polk County Medical Foundation. 

PERSONAL: A third generation native of Salem, Ms. Brown’s roots are deep in the community. A licensed pilot, scuba diver and avid world traveler, she once rode a motorcycle 28,000 miles throughout North America, had a private audience with Pope John Paul II, and circumnavigated the globe by sea.  She and her twelve-year-old daughter, Natalie, live in Salem and are active in a variety of community and charitable activities.