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Brenda Phillips (Stockard Channing) is a minor villainess from "The Mystery of the Downward Spiral", episode 2.10 of The Mysteries of Laura (airdate January 13, 2016). She was the attorney for perfume company Belle Reve, which was run by Michael Dunham and his son Jon. Despite her outward friendliness to him, Brenda had a disdain for Jon following his past as a drug addict and alcoholic.

Brenda was also shown to be ruthless and unethical when it came to her work with Belle Reve. Along with putting three competing companies out of business with copyright lawsuits, she also had a history of orchestrating assaults against employees who crossed her. One such incident occurred with their former tester Georges Tilleu, who took an offer from another company. The evil Brenda had her criminal henchman Vernon Caldasso beat Georges and break his nose, thus ending his career out of spite.

When Michael Dunham was murdered and Brenda's history of violence was uncovered, she was brought in as a suspect for interrogation, who eventually agreed to talk in exchange for a deal and provided herself with an alibi for Michael's murder: she was in bed with her assistant. She additionally implicated Jon in his father's death by revealing how Michael had been sleeping with his fiancee Ayla. She became a suspect once more in the preceding episode, "The Mystery of the Unwelcome Houseguest", but was cleared when Michael's true murderer was discovered to be Belle Reve assistant Ellen Sutter. Brenda was released on her own recognizance, but was informed by detective Jake Broderick that she would still answer for the charges against her.

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