Lawyer to lawyer: James Brown is not qualified

I have been a Montana lawyer for 45 years. James Brown, who is running for the Montana Supreme Court, recently asked me for a contribution. I responded that his record disqualifies him for the court. The substance of my letter follows.

I could not find any objective evidence Brown has established himself as either a reputable attorney or a legal scholar. I had never heard of him, although we practice in the same city. I checked the leading legal peer-review service — Martindale-Hubbell. It rates the skills and ethics of attorneys based upon the honest opinions of both judges and lawyers. The most qualified receive “AV” ratings and the less qualified receive “B” ratings or less. Stunningly, Brown had no peer review rating at all — despite “practicing” for over a decade.

I then searched for Brown in the databases of reported court cases. They showed he had appeared only a few times before the Montana Supreme Court. None of his cases in the lower courts were significant enough to be reported.

Based upon reputation, research and ratings, I concluded Mr. Brown hasn’t established himself as a significant advocate or legal scholar. This doesn’t disqualify him from serving as a judge, but certainly is a major point against him.

More concerning is what I dug up on Brown in the political arena. He’s been a registered corporate lobbyist and partisan political operative for many years. While there is a place for such partisanship in the political legislative and executive branches, there is no room for partisan political operatives on our Montana Supreme Court.

Our court, obviously, must be independent from politics. It actually referees the political battles in the other two branches of government, calling foul when laws and regulations are passed which violate our Constitution or favor corporations over the rights and interests of actual people — individual Montanans. A corporate lobbyist and political operative cannot possibly be a fair referee. Electing Brown would be like putting a fox in the hen house.

But my greatest concern arose when I learned Brown was the lawyer for Western Traditions Partnership, Inc., the most notorious corrupter of Montana politics in modern times. In the case of Western Traditions Partnership, Inc. v. Bullock, 2011 MT 328, the court determined this “foreign corporation” was created “to solicit and anonymously spend the funds of other corporations, individuals and entities to influence the outcome of Montana elections.” Brown’s client informed its anonymous wealthy donors they were “not required to report [their] names or the amount of any contributions.... [They could] just sit back on election night and see what a difference [they had] made.” Now, everyone’s entitled to an attorney, but I cannot believe an attorney who voluntarily chooses to represent a corporation, whose expressed purpose is to corrupt Montana’s government through “dark money,” is qualified to sit on our Supreme Court.

Brown also was spokesperson for Western Traditions in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Big Sky, Big Money.” Like our court, Frontline exposed Brown’s client as an out-of-state corporation that had corrupted Montana’s government through millions of dollars of “dark money.”

Both Republicans and Democrats testified Western had undermined their campaigns through slanderous campaign ads and mailers. Montana’s Commissioner of Political Practices (COPP) discussed how its investigation revealed Western was basically a corrupt organization of liars. It was nothing more than a Colorado post office address, which served as a front and cover for anonymous “big money” out-of-state corporations and wealthy individuals who wanted to control our government so they could carve up Montana. Western received the largest fine ever assessed by COPP, over $880,000.

Brown was evasive when Frontline questioned him about Western’s wealthy anonymous donors and why they were so intent on corrupting Montana’s politics. This is not the honesty and integrity expected from a person asking Montanans to put him on our highest court, which is charged with protecting Montana — not exploiting it.

For these reasons and as a life-long Montana attorney, I must steadfastly oppose Brown’s candidacy. It would be a very sad day for Montana if he were to gain a seat on our Supreme Court.

Erik Thueson is a Helena-area attorney.