Kathleen Brown Joining Manatt Phelps & Phillips

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CHICAGO – Kathleen L. Brown, former California state treasurer and Goldman Sachs’ retired Midwest chair for investment banking, is joining the Los Angeles office of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP, the firm announced Monday.

Brown, who retired from Goldman in June, will join Manatt Phelps as a partner. She will be based in Los Angeles but expects to spend significant time in the firm’s New York City and San Francisco offices. She will advise national private clients on business counseling, government and regulatory affairs with a focus on healthcare, energy, and financial services industries.

Brown, the sister of California Gov. Jerry Brown, will not advise clients if work involves lobbying California state government.

“Kathleen has a distinctive and unique background,” the firm’s managing partner William T. Quicksilver said in a statement. “Her leadership for one of the world’s largest financial services firms and the country’s largest state gives her a deep understanding of business and government and the interplay of the two with the healthcare, energy and banking sectors -- all areas where Manatt excels.”

Brown joined Goldman Sachs in 2001 as a managing director. She served one term as treasurer of California from 1990 to 1994 and was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1994. Her career also includes a tenure as an attorney in the capital markets group at O’Melveny & Myers, and in investment management at Bank of America. She hails from a political clan that includes her brother and her late father Pat Brown, who also served as California governor.

Goldman Sachs named Brown to the newly created position of chairman of investment banking for the Midwest region in 2010. She previously had served as a managing director and head of public sector and infrastructure for the western region. The move out of California followed Brown’s successful bid for governor.

In a statement, Brown said of her decision to join Manatt: “I’ve worked with Manatt lawyers in the financial services and government arenas during my career and have always been impressed with the firm’s quality and innovation in legal and consulting services.”

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips has five California offices and others in New York City, Albany, and Washington, D.C.

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