Judge of the Year Award

Justice Jeff Brown Named Appellate Judge of the Year by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists.


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

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

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.

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 and Service to the Community

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.  He has also studied and practiced at the:

  • 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

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, flag-football, and teaches Sunday school. He also volunteered for Operation Compassion, serving food to Katrina evacuees in 2005.

Currently, in his spare time Jeff is an adjunct law professor at the University of Houston.