Deane B. Brown
HUGHES SOCOL PIERS RESNICK & DYM, LTD.
SHAREHOLDER

Deane B. Brown, a Shareholder at Hughes Socol Piers Resnick & Dym, Ltd., has earned a highly regarded reputation in the Chicago legal community as a tenacious, strategic and skilled advocate for her clients. An accomplished lawyer for 30 years, Deane has extensive experience representing executives and employees in all areas of employment law, including severance negotiations; employment discrimination issues in the EEOC, IDHR and court; non-competition, non-solicitation and trade secret disputes; executive compensation issues; and in negotiating employment agreements. Deane represents clients who have been the victims of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, national origin and disability discrimination. She represents women who have been sexually harassed in the work place, sales representatives who have been wrongfully denied bonuses and commissions, and executives in challenging overbroad and unenforceable non-competition agreements, among many other types of employment matters.

Deane is extremely experienced in representing C-Suite and senior executives in public and private companies in negotiating and drafting employment agreements. She handles sophisticated equity and compensation issues involving long-term and short-term incentive plans, stock options, and restricted stock unit agreements. Deane also assists clients in negotiating signing and retention bonuses, non-compete and non-solicitation provisions as well as confidentiality and trade secret agreements. She also handles shareholder and partnership agreements.

Deane is a leader in the Chicago legal community. She is the Im-

mediate Past President of the Illinois Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), and previously served as President of the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), Chair of the ISBA Bench & Bar Section Council, and Chair of the ISBA Professional Conduct Committee. In addition, Deane is a strong supporter of other professional women. She served as President of the Professional Women’s Club of Chicago and is a founder of the Exclusive Professional Women’s Networking Group (EPWNG).

Deane has been repeatedly recognized as a top lawyer in Illinois. For the last eight years, she has been named to the list of Top 100 Lawyers in Illinois for all practice areas, and for more than a decade, she has been named to the list of Top 50 Women Lawyers in Illinois, in Illinois Super Lawyers Magazine. Deane has also been selected for inclusion in the 2010 and all subsequent editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the areas of Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law. She has been recognized in Leading Lawyers Network Magazine-Women’s Edition as being among the Top Ten Women Lawyers in Illinois among all practice areas.

Deane has also been honored for her contributions to the legal profession. In 2015, Deane received the Top Women Lawyers in Leadership Award from the WBAI, an award given to outstanding women lawyers serving in a leadership role, who have excelled in their chosen field and who have gone beyond traditional mentoring to create new pathways for other women. Deane was also named by the Law Bulletin Media in 2012 as one of 15 women attorneys in the legal community making a unique impact on the profession.