Binta Niambi Brown is Head of Business Affairs at Haight Brand, a record company and artist management business based in Chicago that looks after Chance the Rapper, AlunaGeorge, Knox Fortune and others. She also recently executive produced a Grammy Award winning recording artists debut studio lo.
A former law partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Binta began her career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and advised global entertainment and media companies such as Dreamworks, Time Warner, Universal, the Washington Post Co., and HBO. She represented corporate clients in connection with over $66.5 billion in corporate transactions before the age of 32 (including the then largest oil and gas merger in US history and the then largest bankruptcy in US history) and has expertise in special situations.
Binta advised the Obama White House, Secretary Hillary Clinton (on national security matters), Pope Francis, Governors Elliott Spitzer and Andrew Cuomo and several other governors and US senators.
Ms. Brown’s pro bono practice included involvement with economic development initiatives assisting women in war-torn regions, advocacy on behalf of human trafficking victims, representation of immigrant women in connection with Violence Against Women Act petitions, advising a group of NGOs with respect to submitting a complaint to the UN Human Rights Committee regarding the ongoing exclusion of indigenous people from the constitutional drafting process in Nepal, drafting a shadow report on the treatment of women in Cambodia in connection with CEDAW requirements, and work with the New York City public schools.
She has served on the boards of the SummerStage Music Festival (New York), the American Theatre Wing, New York City Parks Foundation, Barnard College, Columbia University, and is an advisor to the New York Philharmonic.
She has been recognized as a Super Lawyer Rising Star in NYC (a distinction awarded to less than 2.5% of practicing lawyers), and by emPOWER/Financial Times as #8 on its list of the 100 most prominent minority business executives globally, as a Fortune 40 Under 40 Business Leader, the Root’s 100 Most Influential African-Americans, Crain’s New York 40 under 40, JET Magazine 40 under 40, and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.
She has been featured in Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, on CNN, the BBC and on NPR. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and the Columbia University School of Law, Binta was also a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Business and Government and has certificates from Harvard and Yale.
The U.S. Army and Fifth Division, Iraqi Army honored Binta for outstanding pro bono support of a military operation.
Binta is a trained musician and multi-instrumentalist who has performed internationally and throughout the United States including Carnegie Hall and live music venues throughout New York City. She is an amateur photographer and loves yoga.
