About Jeff
Accomplished Jurist & Conservative Legal Scholar
- Justice, 14th Court of Appeals
- Judge, 55th District Court, Harris County
- Private Practice, Baker Botts, L.L.P.
- Briefing Attorney to the Hon. Greg Abbott, Texas Supreme Court
- Briefing Attorney to the Hon. Jack Hightower, Texas Supreme Court
- Appointed by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson to the Supreme Court’s Multidistrict Litigation Panel
- Rated one of the two most outstanding appellate justices of the First and Fourteenth Courts of Appeals
(according to the Houston Bar Association’s 2009 Judicial Evaluation Poll) - Consistently one of the highest rated civil district judges in Harris County
(according to the Houston Bar Association’s Judicial Evaluation Polls, 2003-07)
Highly Rated Candidate for State’s Highest Court
- Ran and won successfully as a Republican on three primary and general election ballots
- Well-known among Republican activists in the state’s most vote-rich Republican media market, and a key battleground for winning statewide elections. Harris County produced 169,488 primary voters, 84% more primary votes than Dallas, 68% more than Tarrant and 143% more than Bexar
- Won with the widest margin in the six Houston Court of Appeals races in 2008
Family, Faith & Community
- Jeff and Susannah Brown have been married for 17 years and have three children, Kathleen, Rob and Gus
- Active members of Bellaire United Methodist Church
- Scout leader, having become an Eagle Scout himself over 20 years ago
- Serves on the advisory board of LifeHouse of Houston, a home for unwed pregnant teens
Education
- University of Houston Law Center
- Chief Note & Comment Editor, Houston Law Review
- Order of the Coif
- Dean’s Scholar University of Texas at Austin, B.A., English major, history minor, May 1992
Jeff Brown was appointed to the Fourteenth Court of Appeals by Governor Rick Perry in December 2007. The court has nine justices and hears appeals from Austin, Brazoria, Chambers, Colorado, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Waller, and Washington counties. Before taking the appellate bench, he served for six years as judge of the 55th District Court in Harris County. While on the trial bench, the bar consistently ranked him among the county’s top district judges.
Jeff is board-certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Before taking the bench, he practiced at Baker Botts, a prestigious Houston law firm, trying jury cases throughout Southeast Texas. Before joining Baker Botts, he was a briefing attorney to Justices Jack Hightower, a conservative Democrat, and Greg Abbott, a Republican, on the Texas Supreme Court.
He earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas and his law degree with high honors from the University of Houston. While in law school he served as an 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 and has served on several non-profit boards, including the Christian Community Service Center. The Texas Jaycees have named Jeff one of the Five Outstanding Young Texans of 2008.
An Eagle Scout, Jeff served on the Sam Houston Area Boy Scouts’ Urban Scouting Committee, a program dedicated to bringing Scouting’s values to inner-city young men. He is cubmaster of Cub Scout Pack 455, has coached baseball, soccer, and flag-football, and teaches Sunday school. He also volunteered for Operation Compassion, serving food to Katrina evacuees in 2005. Jeff has been an adjunct law professor at the University of Houston.
The son of a longtime police officer, Jeff was named Civil District Court 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.
