© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden, JD
Senior Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(September 26) – Jeff Brown, a justice on the Houston Court of Appeals, will be the newest justice to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas.
Gov. Rick Perry announced Brown’s selection Thursday afternoon.
“Jeff has dedicated most of his professional career to the judiciary and it is gratifying to see someone who has made such a strong commitment to public service get promoted,” says former Texas Chief Justice Tom Phillips, now a partner at Baker Botts in Austin.
“Jeff is a solid judge,” Phillips says. “He is a clear, lucid writer and his opinions are easy to follow. He explains what the problem is, what the answer is and how he got there.”
Brown graduated in 1992 from the University of Texas with a degree in English. He received his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1995. He clerked for one year for Justice Jack Hightower and later for then Justice Greg Abbott. Brown worked as an associate at Baker Botts from 1996 to 2001.
A state district judge in Houston from 2001 to 2007, he was appointed to the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston in 2007 by Perry.
“We’ve been very lucky to have Justice Brown on the Houston Court,” says Warren Harris, an appellate law partner at Bracewell Giuliani in Houston.
“He’s a very thoughtful judge who looks at the facts, applies the law and then comes to the right decision,” says Harris. You can’t put him in an ideological hole.”
Brown will be the third new justice to join the state Supreme Court in the past year. While his judicial philosophy seems to fit with the conservative legal views of the other justices, legal experts say new members of the court always changes the mix.
“Each new justice changes the internal dynamics,” says Phillips. “It’s like someone in the family getting married and there’s a new person at the dinner table.”
Gov. Perry called Brown “a staunch defender of the constitutional freedoms our state and our nation are founded upon and he will uphold these values with honor, dignity and integrity as a Supreme Court justice.”
Brown is the treasurer of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, and past president of the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists. He is a member of the American Law Institute, Federalist Society and State Bar of Texas Pattern Jury Charges Committee.
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