Michael W. Brown

Michael W. Brown focuses his practice almost exclusively on criminal defense in state and federal courts in Connecticut. In criminal trial court cases, he has consistently achieved favorable results for clients through pre-trial negotiations, pre-trial motion practice, and success in jury trials. Mike has also won historic appellate victories and secured early release for clients using various sentence reduction mechanisms. Additionally, he has won new trials and exonerations for clients through post-conviction litigation, including habeas corpus cases. He has successfully represented clients in nearly every court in Connecticut.

With significant experience in criminal trials, Mike has defended clients facing a wide range of serious charges, including murder, sexual assault, home invasion, drug offenses, and gun cases in both state and federal courts. He has won several motions to suppress evidence and other critical pre-trial motions. His courtroom style is both personable and relentless, balancing the importance of being reasonable with the need to aggressively defend the rights of those accused of crimes.

As one of Connecticut’s leading practitioners of habeas corpus litigation, Mike is often called upon to train other lawyers on post-conviction law and tactics. Mike has litigated over 60 petitions for the writ of habeas corpus and appreciates the intellectual processes involved in thoroughly examining the record from a prior conviction and presenting claims of constitutional infirmities. Mike has won habeas corpus relief for numerous clients on claims including ineffective assistance of counsel, conflicts of interest, and prosecutorial misconduct under Brady v. Maryland, 373 US 83 (1963). His clients have achieved outcomes such as new trials, new opportunities for favorable case resolutions, and even the exoneration of a man who served nearly 25 years of a life-without-parole sentence.

Mike has also been a leader in advocating for individuals who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms as children, helping them seek parole under Connecticut’s evolving juvenile parole laws. Through his efforts, many of his clients have been released from prison years or even decades earlier than their original sentences.

Mike’s work also extends to the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system. He represents clients acquitted under the defense of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. These individuals are under the jurisdiction of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, and Mike has spent considerable time working to ensure that their rights and personal dignity are protected as they work to safely return to the community.

Mike is a member of the CJA panel and accepts appointments in federal criminal cases in the District of Connecticut and the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He also handles post-sentencing matters in federal court, such as sentence reduction motions for federal inmates. Notably, Mike represented Adrian Peeler in his efforts to reduce his federal sentence before Mr. Peeler was granted a commutation by President Biden in 2025.

Mike believes that nobody is entirely bad, just as nobody is entirely good. He also believes that the systemic overreliance on lengthy incarceration by our criminal justice system ignores both the destruction caused by mass incarceration and the positive possibilities offered by a more restorative approach to addressing the harms caused by criminal conduct. Regardless of whether there is a realistic chance for systemic change, Mike is driven by his desire to make the process more fair for his own clients.

Mike earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, with a minor in Philosophy, from the University of Connecticut in 2008. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota in 2011. After law school, he started his career in Washington, DC, working in the General Counsel’s office of a major labor union. He then worked at a prominent plaintiff-side class-action litigation firm handling consumer protection matters and ERISA litigation. In 2014, Mike returned to Connecticut, where he spent six years at various small criminal defense firms. In 2020, he co-founded Koch, Garg & Brown, which thrived before he and Attorney Patterson established Brown & Patterson in late 2024.

Mike is married and has two children, a dog, and a cat. He enjoys playing basketball, coaching his kids’ sports teams, and exploring his passion for music. He proudly serves on the Board of Directors for the Next Level Empowerment Program, an organization founded by his client Ray Boyd after Ray earned juvenile parole in 2021.