In Memory of Ken Brown

We mourn the loss of our partner and friend, Kenneth Brown, who passed away peacefully on June 7, 2025, after courageously battling cancer for several years. Despite his illness, Ken confronted his struggle with astonishing strength, honesty, and grace. He was a gifted lawyer and he approached every problem with careful logic, intellectual rigor, and a keen sense of fair play.

Ken was a kind, funny, and genuine person, who loved and respected his PSZJ family. No matter what he was battling, he always cared about how others were doing. It was a privilege and honor to have him as a friend and co-worker. He was a brilliant raconteur and had an uncanny knack for weaving a heartfelt story into almost any conversation.

Ken joined our firm in 1998. He represented and advised debtors, unsecured creditors, secured creditors, insurers, creditors’ committees, and trustees in large complex chapter 11 and chapter 15 cases and in related litigation. He masterfully led the firm’s litigation team in representations of the sex-abuse survivor committees in the chapter 11 bankruptcy cases involving the Roman Catholic Church, focusing on recovering assets for the benefit of victims of sex abuse. These representations required Ken’s expertise in identifying, analyzing, and prosecuting claims against the management of debtors for allowing or facilitating the sexual misconduct and abuse. He led the team that obtained a judgment in one of these cases worth in excess of $100 million. Ken also specialized in WARN Act class-action litigation and advising on the intersection of the WARN Act and bankruptcy.

Throughout his illustrious career, Ken was a director of the Bay Area Bankruptcy Forum, a member of the State Bar of California Business Law Section Subcommittee on Debtor/Creditor Relations and Bankruptcy, and frequently served as a mediator for the Bankruptcy Dispute Resolution Program for the Northern District of California and the San Francisco Bar Association. He was a graduate of U.C. Santa Barbara and received his J.D. at Hastings College of the Law, where he was articles editor for the Hastings Law Journal.

Ken will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.