John Henry Browne is a criminal defense attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 practicing in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

.

Background

Browne has represented defendants in a number of high-profile criminal cases. In one widely-reported, influential case he convinced a Washington State appeals court to overturn the murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

 conviction of David Wayne Kunze, the first man ever convicted based on forensic earprint evidence.

Browne gained nationwide attention as lead plaintiff

Plaintiff

A plaintiff , also known as a claimant or complainant, is the term used in some jurisdictions for the party who initiates a lawsuit before a court...

 in a lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 filed in 2007 by famous class action

Class action

In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...

 lawyer Steve Berman

Steve Berman (lawyer)

Steve Berman is an American plaintiff's lawyer who founded and is Managing Partner of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, a 42-attorney law firm based in Seattle, Washington.- Background :Berman helped found his namesake firm in 1993...

 against Avvo

Avvo

Avvo.com is an expert-only Q&A forum where people can ask legal and health questions of lawyers and doctors, for free. The Q&A forum is backed by an online directory of doctors and lawyers licensed in the United States. Avvo provides listings to which doctors and attorneys can submit their own...

, a law-related review site

Review site

A review site is a website on which reviews can be posted about people, businesses, products, or services. These sites may use Web 2.0 techniques to gather reviews from site users or may employ professional writers to author reviews on the topic of concern for the site...

. He was reportedly upset that the site had rated him "average" via a rating system that evaluates vertical disciplinary stature. That suit was dismissed on pre-trial motion, on grounds that the ratings were expressions of opinion protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution

First Amendment to the United States Constitution

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...

.

In 2006, the Washington State Bar admonished Browne as part of a settlement of ethics charges stemming from his overcharging a client by $30,000 to $40,000.

Browne will also be defending Colton Harris-Moore

Colton Harris-Moore

Colton A. "Colt" Harris-Moore is a criminal and former fugitive from Camano Island, Washington. He was charged with the thefts of small aircraft, a boat, and two cars and in the burglaries of at least 100 private residences in various locations around the Pacific Northwest of the United States...

, a.k.a. the "Barefoot Bandit" in his upcoming trial.

External links

• official biography - on firm website
• news links - links to cases through 2001
• avvo complaint