Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak announces her selection for city attorney

Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak on Wednesday announced her appointment of Jessica Brown to serve as Burlington's next city attorney. The position has been vacant for two years, with Joseph McNeil serving as interim city attorney, but it's a position that Mulvaney-Stanak said was essential to fill in a time of a public health and safety crisis.

The City Attorney's Office is one that has been experiencing high turnover, and low employment for the past few years, with "three employees doing the work of six" according to Mulvaney-Stanak. She said Brown is "eminently qualified" and hopes this appointment will bring successful collaboration with the current office and begin the process of filling those vacant positions.

If confirmed, Brown will be making history as the first Black woman to hold this title in Burlington.

Georgetown Law, Vermont Law School

Brown received a law degree from Georgetown University in May 1996, followed by a 24-year career as a public defender in New Hampshire and Vermont in both the state and federal criminal legal systems. Her career pivoted toward education in 2021 when she took on the role of assistant professor of law and the associate director of the Center for Justice Reform at Vermont Law and Graduate School. She was recently promoted to director of the Center for Justice Reform.

Mulvaney-Stanak said Brown has a focus on equity and being a "steward of public good" through leadership and new approaches to complex problems. Her areas of interest include "addressing the impact of wealth and race disparities in the criminal and juvenile legal systems, moving away from law enforcement and punishment responses toward restorative and transformative responses to harm and providing the resources to address issues of health, wellness and stability that will make our communities safer."

Brown said that she's keenly aware of the challenges Burlington faces and hopes to be a guiding hand in the work that the mayor and City Council do, citing the new administration being a driving factor in her excitement for the new role. She plans to meet with department leaders to collaborate and establish trust, along with building the department up from the current three assistant attorneys.

City Council President Ben Traverse said he and many other councilors have met with Brown and are "thrilled with this appointment," stating that having an able and available city attorney is vitally important.

Mulvaney-Stanak will bring this appointment to the Burlington City Council July 15, and if it passes, Brown will begin in the role Aug. 19. City Councilor and Chair of the Public Safety Committee Melo Grant is hoping for "unanimous approval," stating that Brown's history in the courts makes her "a leader we need."

Sydney P. Hakes is the Burlington city reporter. Contact her at SHakes@gannett.com.