Meghan Brown never planned on being an attorney. In fact, growing up the daughter of a Buffalo lawyer, she “purposely” aimed to avoid a legal career, intent instead on carving her own path in the publishing world of New York City.

Yet, even despite working in an entirely different industry, Meghan eventually discovered you can’t escape fate.

“We were licensing excerpts from books and translations, and I was dealing with the legal department all the time,” she said of her work in publishing. “It kind of sunk into my brain that maybe what I wanted to be doing was what those people were doing and not what I was doing. And I thought, ‘Maybe I should go to law school and just see.’ So, I went to law school thinking I would get back into some kind of transactional work and move back to New York. But I came up here to go to the University at Buffalo, and I ended up really liking litigation, and I loved being back home where I’m from. And so, I had to make the call to my dad and be, like, ‘yeah, I’m going to be a lawyer.’”

It was a ‘good call.’

Today, Meghan is a partner in Goldberg Segalla’s Civil Litigation and Trial practice group and co-chair of the firm’s Appellate group. A widely regarded litigator and thought leader, Meghan’s practice is focused on defending a variety of entities in personal injury claims. She also regularly handles appeals involving wide-ranging subjects.

“I really like interacting with other people. I like going to court. I like doing motions as opposed to transactions or closing deals,” Meghan said. “I got into doing defense early in my career, and that seemed to be where the opportunities were to litigate and get into court. So, it’s kind of a natural fit. I also do a lot of appeals, and I think that comes from the fact that I like to research and write. I always have. I had a clerkship at the Fourth Department after law school and worked on appeals. So, they’ve always sort of been near and dear to me.”

Near and dear to Meghan too is being someone to whom her colleagues can turn – something which she learned from her father.

“I noticed that about my dad when I was growing up: his door was always open, and people would take advantage of that. And so, I’ve tried to be that way. There’s nothing more valuable than talking to your colleagues. So, I want to definitely be somebody that anybody could pop in and ask a question – big, small, legal, non-legal – I think that’s important.”

Meghan’s open-door policy is not something that’s unique unto herself at Goldberg Segalla. She believes what sets the firm apart from others is the way GS attorneys from coast-to-coast are there to help one another at a moment’s notice.

“I’ve been here 13 years, and that’s more than half my career,” Meghan said. “Not just here in the Buffalo office, but throughout the firm in various other offices, I have never had anyone turn me away when I have a question. I think we lift each other up here in a way that I don’t know is common across the industry. I don’t sense any in-firm competition. So, you know, if I’m helping you, that only helps me. And I feel that vice versa.”

Meghan’s penchant for listening, communicating, and advocating is not reserved only for her colleagues. They are the very qualities that define her approach to client service.

“It’s all about communication,” she said. “I think that is something that kind of has gotten lost in society: nobody wants to talk on the phone. I don’t know what a client’s business is, and I don’t know what their challenges are. The best way to get that information is to pick up the phone and talk to them and not just exchange emails. I’d rather, at least initially, get on the phone and have that conversation: ‘Tell me what your business is. What industry are you in? Tell me about that.’ I think that helps, from their perspective, to think, ‘Oh, okay; she cares.’”

That said, Meghan acknowledges that no two clients are the same. So, flexibility is critical.

“I’m certain there are clients I’ve had, and have, that don’t want to talk to me on the phone. They want to pretend their lawsuit doesn’t exist. They will give me what I need, but they barely want to communicate with me, and that’s fine. And then there’s other clients, and they want to talk to me on the phone every week. So, I think you just have to be ready to meet them where they are and not where I want them to be. It’s doing what they want, as opposed to just what I want.”

Still, what a client wants is not always synonymous with what’s possible. And, nothing is guaranteed, especially when it comes to a lawsuit. Thus, providing sound legal counsel requires ensuring a client fully understands the full scope of challenges surrounding their case, Meghan said.

“It’s litigation. I’m on the defense side. The client’s being sued. So, they’re not in a position of strength from the start. You have to manage expectations. Yes, I’m going to make a motion. I’m going to try to get you out of the case. Maybe there’s a 12-percent chance it’s going to be granted. You have to set that up at the beginning. You know, clients who say, ‘I’ll never settle, I’ll never pay, I’ll never whatever…,’ you have to manage that right from the start. You always are striving for that pure, perfect victory. But it is rare. And so, I think you just have to set up all the possible outcomes and the likelihood of success on all of them and just sort of manage expectations at every level.”

Without question, the uncertainties which surround litigation are often daunting. But for Meghan, the challenges of the job are what motivate her.

“I like to get my hands dirty. I’m happy to be engaged in every aspect of the process. This work, especially litigation, it’s always different. I love the fact that all my cases are not the same. That motivates me. I like problem solving. I like getting a new case and having to think about it. I really like sinking my teeth into some kind of new problem and doing the research. It can be a little bit scary. But the fact that some days I’m in the office, and then some days I get to go and argue, or I get to go interact with other people – that motivates me. My peers are very motivational to me, seeing what they do. It’s a good community to be a part of.”

Meghan is equally proud of being part of the community of today’s female attorneys which continues to steadily make its mark in the profession.

“Thank you to the women who paved the way, because now, it’s not a big deal to roll into a deposition and have more of the attorneys be women than men. It is not a big deal to go for an argument, and the judge is a woman and both attorneys arguing are women. There was a time, and it wasn’t so long ago, when that would be something that someone would remark on. The fact that now it doesn’t have to be made into a talking point is excellent. We’re just doing our jobs. The peer group is fantastic.”