My 2 cents as a computer repair tech who sees a LOT of offices buy the wrong printer.
While Brother makes decent laser printers, HP makes better ones. Some Brother models also have issues with short drum life in my experience. HPs run forever. There's a reason the Brothers usually cost half of what an HP costs.
That said, I would also suggest you seriously reconsider whether you REALLY need a multi-function or will a printer alone do the job. If you need a scanner and want to also use it as a copier then by all means get a laser printer/scanner/copier. If you really don't need the scanner, already have one, or copying is not an issue then for sheer reliability a laser only printer is usually a better buy than a printer/scanner/copier. Not that they don't make good all-in-ones (especially HPs) but there's more complexity, more that can go wrong, and most of these all-in-ones install huge background apps along with the drivers (and they have to be installed for it to work properly) that eat up memory and performance.
Another issue is that if you plan on networking the printer, some multi-function printers don't work well on networks. You need to research this before you buy. And keep in mind that you usually CANNOT network the scanner (except on extremely expensive hi-end network photo copiers).
As for a multi-function with a fax, my personal advice would be to avoid them. Most multis with fax don't do the fax thing very well in my experience. A fax is one of those office machines that should NOT be combined in a printer unless you have no choice. You're better off with a stand-alone fax.
Other things you need to look at is what kind of use this machine will get. Printers are rated (in their specifications) for pages per month. You need to buy a printer that's capable of the volume you expect to use it for. Too often I've seen an office with massive printing needs use an inadequate printer (for example 5 users in a tax office which is guaranteed to generate massive amounts of printouts, all sharing some cheap 5000 page per month $100 printer.
Whatever you do, use google to find some reviews on the printer you're interested in before you buy. Also do a google newsgroup search on the printer - that's where you'll see people posting complaints or troubleshooting issues. That'll give you a good feel for how problematic the printer may be.
Hope this helps...
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