Peter Megargee Brown papers

Peter Megargee Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 15, 1922. Brown attended Yale from 1940 to 1943 and was active in the Yale Record, Yale Political Union, and athletic activities. After his induction into the Army in 1943, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1944. In 1946, Brown entered Yale Law School and earned his Juris Doctorate degree in 1948. He was a special assistant to the New York State Attorney General and senior counsel to the New York State Crime Commission from 1952 to 1953 under John Marshall Harlan. Brown then served as assistant United States attorney in charge of the Federal Waterfront Prosecution from 1953 to 1956 under Judge J. Edward Lumbard.

In 1956, he began his twenty-six year career at the firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and quickly rose to become the head of the litigation and ethics committee. Brown and his law partner, Whitney North Seymour, left in 1982 to form Brown & Seymour. The firm continued until the retirement of North in 1996; thereafter, Brown maintained a solo practice until his retirement in 2004.

Brown is the author of The Art of Questioning, Thirty Maxims of Cross-Examination, and Rascals: The Selling of the American Legal Profession, as well as several other non-legal titles.