Seanna Brown is the go-to lawyer for big cases, having cut her teeth on the unprecedented global recovery effort following the collapse of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Since the first day following the appointment of Irving Picard as Trustee, Seanna has been the principal deputy to Picard and his chief counsel, David Sheehan, and together they have unraveled one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Seanna has worked on every major aspect of the Madoff engagement, spearheading the negotiation of billion-dollar settlements, leading trial and appellate teams in the litigation of some of the most critical matters facing the bankruptcy bar in generations, chasing assets across the globe, and distributing over $14 billion of recovered assets to Madoff’s victims—an unparalleled amount that far exceeds even the most optimistic projections made when the fraud was first discovered in 2008.
Efficiently managing and collaborating with large teams of diverse lawyers, Seanna combines exceptional strategic thinking, formidable project management skills and instinctual good judgment to achieve the right results for her clients. Her versatility and pragmatic approach to the law allows her to operate effectively in the various disciplines that large, multi-faceted cases present—complex litigation, major motions, trials, appeals to the Circuit Courts and Supreme Court, bankruptcy, asset recovery and e-discovery and document management in the modern era.
Seanna brings the same skills to bear for indigent clients too, representing death row inmates in post-conviction challenges in Alabama and Georgia state and federal courts for the last dozen years. Her appellate acumen and exceptional brief writing skills have been sought out by such clients as the American Bar Association, the Fines, Fees & Justice Center and the National Women’s Law Center, with Seanna representing them as amici curiae to the Supreme Court and Circuit courts across the nation on the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, the Eighth Amendment prohibition on fines and Title IX on college campuses.
Seanna serves as co-leader of the New York Bankruptcy team, co-chair of the firmwide Pro Bono Committee and one of ten members of the firmwide Strategic Planning Committee. Seanna was recognized as a Rising Star by both Law360 and the New York Law Journal and has been a New York Metro “Super Lawyer” every year since 2011.