Biography
Brynne C. Brown is an attorney with the Kansas City office of Lewis Rice. Brynne provides clients with a high level of service in the practice areas of estate planning, taxation, and business law. She works alongside each of her clients to develop a plan or resolution that best fits their unique and dynamic needs and wishes.
Brynne counsels individuals and families on estate planning, probate and trust administration, and estate, gift, and income taxation. She has been on both sides of drafting estate plans and administering estate and trusts. Throughout her practice, she has drafted estate planning documents of all types and levels of complexity.
Brynne represents exempt and nonprofit entities. She has experience forming public charities and private foundations (both in corporate and trust form), filing the initial application for federal tax-exempt status, and counseling exempt and nonprofit entities on operational and tax matters. Brynne also represents for-profit entities, usually closely held or family owned businesses, with business formation, choice of entity decisions, succession planning, and general governance matters.
Prior to joining Lewis Rice, Brynne served as Trust Counsel for Commerce Trust, a division of Commerce Bank, during which she advised on the administration of estates, foundations, and trusts, specifically the duties required of and the discretion afforded to a corporate fiduciary under governing documents and statute. She has extensive experience drafting complex nonjudicial settlement agreements and release and indemnification agreements. In this role, Brynne oversaw outside counsel on court-involved matters and special projects, which gives her a distinct understanding of the expectations that corporate fiduciaries have of their outside counsel.
Brynne and her husband, Eric, have a daughter, Nora, and a senior Boxer pup, Watson.
Practice Areas
- Charitable & Cultural Taxation
- Corporate
- Estate Planning & Probate
- Taxation
- Tax-Exempt Organizations
- Trust & Estate Litigation
Education
- University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law (LL.M., 2017)
- Taxation
- CALI Award for Top Grade in Federal Income Tax of Estates and Trusts
- University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law (J.D., 2016)
- Dean's list
- Articles & Symposium Editor for UMKC Law Review
- CALI Award for Top Grade in Tax of Property Transaction and in State and Local Tax
- University of Missouri at Kansas City Bloch School of Business (M.B.A., 2015)
- Emphases in Finance and Management
- University of Missouri at Columbia (B.S., magna cum laude, 2012)
- Emphases in Finance and Economics
Legal Background
- Vice President & Trust Counsel, Commerce Trust, a division of Commerce Bank (2021-2023)
- Attorney, Chinnery Evans & Nail, PC (2021)
- Senior Associate Attorney, Van Osdol, P.C. (2016-2020)
- Legal Intern/Attorney, BridgeBuilder Tax + Legal Services, P.A. (2015-2016)
- Legal Intern, The United States Trustee Program, Department of Justice (Summer 2014)
Professional Affiliations
- Children’s Mercy, Donald H. Chisholm Planned Giving Council
- Heart of America Tax Institute
- Institute Co-Chair
- Arrangements Co-Chair
- Kansas Bar Association
- Kansas City Estate Planning Symposium
- Technology Committee Member
- Sponsorship Committee Member
- Mid-America Charitable Gift Planners
- At-large Member of Board of Directors
- Building Blocks Conference, Chair
- Building Blocks Conference, Committee Member
- Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association
- Missouri Bar Association
Admissions
- Kansas Bar
- Missouri Bar
Honors & Awards
- Missouri & Kansas Super Lawyers Rising Star (2020)
- Graduate of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Bar Leadership Academy (2017)
- Best Written Submission, American Bar Association Law Student Tax Challenge, LL.M. Division (2016)
- National Finalist, Oral Defense, American Bar Association Law Student Tax Challenge, LL.M. Division (2016)
- National Finalist for the Judge John R. Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing (2015)
