Meredith Brown
Meredith Brown is a founding partner of Oakland-based law firm Bryant & Brown. She has more than 19 years of experience representing public agencies, and her principal areas of specialty are construction law and business law for private and public entities as well as public procurement and local government law for California public agencies.
Meredith has developed construction general conditions and special provisions for multi-million-dollar construction projects and provided claims avoidance counseling and defense for public entities conducting large capital programs involving multiple complex construction and joint development projects. She has also drafted procurement procedures; analyzed and resolved construction bid protests; and drafted and trained school district staff on the use of Requests for Proposals and contract templates. She has experience drafting and negotiating leases, joint use agreements, and memoranda of understanding for public entity clients with a heavy construction and procurement volume.
From 1989 to 1994, she practiced construction and business litigation on behalf of nationally recognized public and private clients. From 1994 to the present, Meredith has represented a number of large and small public entities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In 2000, Meredith founded the law office of Meredith E. Brown. In 2001, she was appointed by the Oakland Unified School District as the special facilities counsel with regard to legal compliance issues, procurement, and school-related facilities projects including school modernization, deferred maintenance, school construction and construction litigation.
In 2004, Guy Bryant joined her law office and the firm was renamed Bryant & Brown.
Education: Juris Doctorate, Boston University School of Law ; Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University; served as a clerk for United States Magistrate Joyce London Alexander, First Circuit in Boston, Mass.
Affiliations: Admitted to the California Bar in 1989.
In the community:
- President of the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club. Delegate to the 2008 National Democratic Party Convention in Denver, Colo. Member of the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Organization, and a board member of the National Women’s Political Caucus, Alameda County.
- Member of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce, and the Oakland East Bay Small Business Council.
- President of the Oakland Montclair Soccer Club, a coach of its girls Under-10 team and a former coach of the Oakland Grass Valley Soccer Club. Coaches the girls U-10 Skyline Lacrosse Club (serving Oakland, Piedmont and Alameda).
- Active member of the Junior League service club and has been an annual volunteer for the Junior League literacy program “shooting stars” implemented in Oakland public schools.
Guy Bryant
Guy Bryant is a founding partner in the Oakland-based law firm of Bryant & Brown. His principal areas of specialty include education law and labor law. Guy’s practice has included workers’ compensation, civil insurance and business litigation. His current practice emphasizes employment, labor, and general civil litigation on behalf of K-12 school districts, community college districts and the University of California.
Guy has participated in trials, briefed and argued cases in state and federal appellate courts, and has briefed matters before the California Supreme Court. He is often a guest lecturer in the field of education law and he conducts annual seminars on the topics of collective bargaining, employee discipline, discrimination and sexual harassment.
Guy has extensive experience with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), collective bargaining issues, contracts, lay-offs, dismissal and termination proceedings, grievance processes, mediation and arbitration proceedings, fact-finding, employee and other discrimination complaints involving the EEOC, OCR, and DFEH, special education hearings, facility related matters including contract review, construction issues, and construction litigation.
Guy has negotiated numerous collective bargaining agreements and handled hundreds of grievances and unfair practice charges. He has participated in labor negotiations with various entities including the California Teachers Association, Classified School Employees Association, the Teamsters (truck drivers), American Federation of Teachers, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (food service workers).
In 2004, Guy joined the Law Office of Meredith E. Brown located in Oakland and the firm was renamed Bryant & Brown. Guy has many years of experience representing school boards and school administrators with regard to the many complex issues facing public entities.
In 2003, Guy became the first California lawyer to graduate from the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Superintendents Academy.
Guy is an adjunct law professor with Argosy University teaching the education law component of the Education Leadership Doctoral Program.
Education: Juris Doctorate, Boston University School of Law; Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut.
Affiliations: Admitted to the California Bar in 1990. Member of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Alameda County Bar Association, Los Angeles Bar Association, and the Charles Houston Bar Association.
In the community:
- Executive Board of the Metropolitan Greater Oakland Democratic Club (”MGO”) and chair of its Education Committee.
- Treasurer of the Alameda County Democratic Lawyers Club.
- Executive Board of the Alameda County Bar Association Labor & Employment Law section.
- Member of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland African-American Chamber of Commerce, and the Oakland East Bay Small Business Council.
- Assistant coach for the Montclair Soccer Club boys Under-11 team and a former coach of the Oakland Grass Valley Soccer Club.
- Board member of Skyline Lacrosse club and coach of the Skyline Lacrosse Club boys U-13 team.
- NCJLA commissioner for U-11 girls lacrosse.
