Brown & Burke Information

Rufus Brown focuses his practice in the areas of intellectual property (trademarks and copyright), commercial and civil rights litigation, administrative law and outdoor law. Rufus received his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1969, after which he served as a Law Clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to Judge Charles Fahy. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Maine at Orono in 1966 with a B.A. in History and Government. Prior to founding Brown & Burke in 1993, Rufus practiced both in private practice and public sectors, including service as Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation in the Maine Attorney General's Office. A proficient writer, Rufus believes strongly in advocacy through brief writing and using his analytical skills. He is counsel of record in more than 50 reported decisions and has presented at legal seminars in the areas of his expertise. He has also served on the Maine Civil Rules Committee and the Maine State Bar Continuing Legal Education Committee. He has been Program Chair and Seminar Facility for MSBA programs on Business Torts, Administrative Practice, Superior Court Practice, Appellate Practice, and the American Bar Association's Annual Meeting on The Constitutional Limits of Insurance Regulation. He has also been Adjunct Professor for Advanced Legal Writing at the University of Maine School of Law. Rufus concentrates his practice in intellectual property and commercial litigation, including trademark and copyright litigation, administrative law, business disputes and civil rights litigation. Since 2009, Rufus has devoted a substantial portion of his practice to litigating issues relating to wind turbine projects, especially noise issues affecting neighbors to such projects. In 2011 he was the moving force in a citizen initiated rulemaking proceedings resulting in new regulations promulgated by the Maine Board of Environmental Protection lowering allowable noise limits for wind projects. In March of 2013, he successfully overturned a licensed granted to a windpower project in the case of Friends of Maine's Mountains v. Board of Environmental Protection, 2013 ME 25, 61 A.3d 689, on the grounds that the Board of Environmental Protection abused its discretion by refusing to apply the lower noise limits it had provisionally adopted to the project given the importance of the health issue underlying the lower limits. Rufus makes his home in Portland and Georgetown Island, Maine where his love for sailing and other outdoor activities are easily met. He enjoys traveling and kayaking with his wife, playing tennis with his daughter and reading and discussing literature with his son and author, college professor.