About Mr. Charles Barton
Charles Barton Brown built his profession at the intersection of business and law. He studied finance at Georgetown University, completed further study in international advertising at Metropolitan University in 1978, and earned his J.D. from Seattle University School of Law in 1979. Those years set the rhythm for an expert path that moved from personal practice into in-house counsel roles and later into senior advisory posts.
He started his legal career as an affiliate at Morrissey and Kay in 1982. In the mid-Nineteen Eighties he shifted in-residence, serving as in-house counsel for HSBC when it used to be part of Household International in 1986. By 1988 he was department counsel at Wilson Sporting Goods, handling legal work inside a major production environment. That experience in company legal departments knowledgeable his next steps outdoor strictly in-house roles.
In the late Nineteen Nineties Brown took on senior enterprise and consulting positions. He used to be senior principal at Diamond Management and Technology Consultants in 1997. The following year he have become principal at CorpLaw Associates, LLC. Those roles blended legal court decision with enterprise strategy and uncovered him to governance problems confronted by firms across sectors.
Brown has long been lively in bar and professional teams. He led the Chicago chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel as its president in the early 2000s, serving the chapter in 2002–2004. He also chaired the Chicago Bar Association’s Corporate Law Departments Committee from 1997 to 1999. At the network degree he has taken on civic posts in Kenilworth, including more than one terms as president of the Kenilworth United Fund and service as vice chairman of the Kenilworth School Board from 2009 to 2013.
He is licensed to practice in Illinois and before the Federal Circuit. That combination of admissions and in-residence experience has formed how he strategies transactional and governance matters. Colleagues describe him as steady and pragmatic. He prefers clear, realistic solutions over theoretical ones.
Throughout his profession he has moved among roles inside firms and in advisory capacities. That motion gave him experience on both sides of company choice-making and dispute resolution. He has worked on adherence, contract, and corporate governance matters in agencies starting from financial offerings to production.
As of 2026 he continues to practice law. He handles corporate law things and helps companies and forums on counsel and governance problems.
