Ada E. Brown

Ada Elene Brown (born November 8, 1974) is a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She is a former trial judge of the Dallas County courts and a former Justice of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. She is the first African-American woman federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

Brown received her Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Spelman College and her Juris Doctor from Emory University School of Law, both in Atlanta, Georgia. Brown is a member of Mensa and is trilingual.

Brown began her career practicing criminal law. She served as a felony trial prosecutor at the Dallas County District Attorney's Office, where she tried over 100 jury trials to verdict as lead prosecutor.

After leaving the trial bench, Brown practiced as a civil litigator at McKool Smith in Dallas, Texas, where her practice focused on high-stakes commercial litigation and complex patent infringement matters. While at McKool Smith, Brown tried cases that resulted in some of the largest jury trial verdicts in the nation. In a representative case, she presented evidence for plaintiffs about the technology of the ‘350 patent to the jury in the Versata Development Group, Inc. v. SAP America, Inc. trial, where the jury awarded $345 million to her client, Versata. This award was increased to $391 million on final judgment. This was the 10th largest jury verdict in the US for 2011.

Brown also presented plaintiff's evidence of damages to the jury in the Medtronic v. Boston Scientific patent infringement trial, where Boston Scientific was found to have infringed Medtronic's '364, '358, and '057 patents. The jury returned a $250 million verdict in favor of her client. This was the 12th largest jury verdict in the US for 2008.

Brown was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as a Commissioner for the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, the regulatory agency responsible for licensing all police officers in Texas. Perry later appointed Brown as a Commissioner for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the board responsible for overseeing the Texas Rangers and all Texas State troopers.

When she ended her service as a Commissioner for the Texas Department of Public Safety to become an appellate court judge, Perry awarded her the Yellow Rose of Texas Award. Brown was also named an Honorary Captain of the Texas Rangers by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Brown served as a trial judge of the Dallas County Criminal Court, before leaving the bench to join McKool Smith. When Brown was appointed to serve as a trial judge at age 30, she was the youngest sitting judge in Texas.

On September 3, 2013, Governor Rick Perry appointed her to serve as a Justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas, the state's largest and busiest intermediate appellate court.

In a 2019 Dallas Bar Poll evaluating her performance as an appellate court justice, Brown was the highest rated justice on her appellate court in 4 of the 5 areas of evaluation, including proper judicial temperament and demeanor; authoring well-reasoned opinions based on proper application of the law; being open-minded with respect to determination of legal issues; and overall performance as an appellate judge.

Brown served as a Justice on Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas for six years, during which time she authored over 500 opinions and heard over 1,500 civil and criminal appeals. While an appellate court judge, she was one of two African-American appellate jurists in the State of Texas. She resigned from the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas upon her appointment to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

On March 15, 2019, President Trump announced his intent to nominate Brown to serve as a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. On March 26, 2019, her nomination was sent to the Senate. Ada Brown was nominated to the seat vacated by Judge Terry R. Means, who took senior status on July 3, 2013. On April 30, 2019, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On June 13, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by an 18–4 vote. On July 30, 2019, the Senate voted 79–9 to invoke cloture on her nomination. On September 11, 2019, the Senate confirmed Brown's nomination by a vote of 80–13. She received her judicial commission on September 13, 2019.

Brown was rated unanimously well-qualified by the American Bar Association.

Brown was the first African-American woman appointed to a bench in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas in its 140-year existence.Brown is also the first African-American woman Article III federal judge nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate.

Brown is a member of Mensa and the Federalist Society.