Jeff Brown was appointed to the 14th Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Perry in 2007 and won election to the same seat in 2008. From 2001-07 he served as judge of the 55th District Court. He has been consistently one of the highest ranked judges in the Houston Bar Association's judicial-evaluation poll. In 2009, Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson appointed Jeff to the state's Multi-District Litigation Panel. In 2011, he was named Appellate Judge of the Year by the Texas Association of Civil Trial & Appellate Specialists.
Jeff is board-certified in Civil Trial Law. Before becoming a judge, he practiced at Baker Botts, trying jury cases throughout Southeast Texas. Before Baker Botts, he was a briefing attorney to Justices Jack Hightower and Greg Abbott on the Texas Supreme Court.
He earned his bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas and his law degree with high honors from the University of Houston. While in law school he served as chief note & comment editor of the Houston Law Review.
In 2006, the Texas Young Lawyers Association named Jeff Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas. Jeff has been active in state and local bar activities, including service as judicial liaison to the Houston Young Lawyers Association, chairman of HYLA's Non-Profit Law Committee, co-chairman of the Houston Bar Association's John J. Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run and vice-chairman of TYLA's National Trial Competition. He has served on the boards of the Texas Lyceum, Houston Law Review, University of Houston Law Alumni Association, Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, Texas Center for the Judiciary, and Christian Community Service Center. He also serves on LifeHouse of Houston's advisory board and as a Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo committeeman.
An Eagle Scout, Jeff served on the Sam Houston Area Boy Scouts' Urban Scouting Committee, an effort to bring Scouting to the inner city. He remains an active Scout leader, and serves as Scouting Ministries Coordinator at his church. Jeff also worked on Operation Compassion, serving food to Katrina evacuees in 2005. The Texas Jaycees named him one of Five Outstanding Young Texans in 2008.
Jeff has been an adjunct law professor at the University of Houston and is a member of the State Bar's Pattern Jury Charge Committee. He also serves on the editorial board of the The Advocate, the quarterly journal of the State Bar's Litigation Section. In 2008, he was elected to the American Law Institute. He has also taught for the National Judicial College.
The son of a police officer, Jeff was named Civil District Judge of the Year by the Houston Police Officers Union in 2002 and by P.O.L.I.C.E., Inc., ("Peace Officers Looking Into Courthouse Excellence") in 2003. He and his wife, Susannah, a schoolteacher, live in southwest Houston with their three children, Kathleen, Rob and Gus. They are active members of Bellaire United Methodist Church.
Updated: 19-May-2011
