Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
- Civil Procedure
- Ethics
- Georgia Practice and Procedure
- Professional Responsibility
Lonnie T. Brown, Jr.
Lonnie T. Brown, Jr. is the Dean and Elvin E. Overton Distinguished Professor of Law. He joined the College of Law in 2022, after spending 20 years at the University of Georgia School of Law where he was the A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, the university’s highest honor for teaching excellence. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Georgia Law’s associate dean for academic affairs.
Dean Brown’s research concentrates primarily on legal ethics in the adversary system, and he speaks and writes frequently in this area. He also has written a biography of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark titled Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark (Stanford University Press, 2019) and is a co-author of Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach (West Academic, 5th ed. 2023).
Earlier in his career, Dean Brown was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and served as a visiting assistant professor at Vanderbilt University. In addition, he taught at Emory University as an adjunct professor. He also served as a judicial clerk for Judge William C. O’Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. From 1991 to 1999, he practiced law as an associate and a partner at Alston & Bird LLP in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dean Brown is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees for the American Inns of Court. He also serves on the Drafting Committee for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam and has been a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a body responsible for issuing formal opinions interpreting the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Code of Judicial Conduct. In addition, Dean Brown served for 11 years on the State Bar of Georgia’s Formal Advisory Opinion Board and is a longstanding member of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility and the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers.
A dedicated teacher, Dean Brown has received numerous teaching awards throughout his career. He was the inaugural recipient of Georgia Law’s C. Ronald Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching and received the Student Bar Association’s Professionalism Award on 15 separate occasions. In addition, he was selected five times to serve as an honorary faculty marshal at commencement by graduating classes. At the university level, Dean Brown served as an Administrative Fellow in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, a Senior Teaching Fellow, and a member of UGA’s Teaching Academy.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from Emory University, where he was a Robert W. Woodruff Scholar, student body president, and recipient of the Marion Luther Brittain Award, Emory’s highest student honor. He then earned his law degree from Vanderbilt Law School, where he was a Patrick Wilson Scholar and editor-in-chief of the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.
He and his wife, Kim, have two children, Theddaux and Olivia.
- Education & Experience
- Publications
J.D., 1989, Vanderbilt University Law School
B.A., 1986, Emory University
Books and Chapters
Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach, Fifth Edition (with Renee Knake Jefferson, Russell Pearce, Bruce Green, et al.) (West Academic, 2023)
Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach, Fourth Edition (with Renee Knake Jefferson, Russell Pearce, Bruce Green, et al.) (West Academic, 2020)
Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark (Stanford University Press, 2019) – Awarded Silver Medal, Independent Publisher Book Awards for Biographies; favorably reviewed by the Journal of American History (Oxford University Press, 2020) and JOTWELL (2020)
Ramsey Clark in Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (Roger K. Newman, ed.) (Yale University Press, 2009)
Georgia Practice and Procedure: Cases and Materials (with C. Ronald Ellington) (self-published teaching materials, revised annually through 2022)
Articles
Criticizing Judges: A Lawyer’s Professional Responsibility, 56 Ga. L. Rev. 161 (2021)
Civil Unrest and the Role of the Attorney General: A Comparison of Ramsey Clark to William Barr, 72 Mercer L. Rev. 789 (2021) (Invited)
Different Lyrics, Same Song: Watts, Ferguson, and the Stagnating Effect of the Politics of Law and Order, 52 Harv. Civ. Rts.-Civ. Lib. L. Rev. 305 (2017)
In Defense of the Devil’s Advocate, 44 Hofstra L. Rev. 1037 (2016) (Invited)
Civility and Collegiality—Unreasonable Judicial Expectations for Lawyers as Officers of the Court?, 2 St. Mary’s J. of Legal Malp. & Ethics 324 (2012) (Invited)
A Tale of Prosecutorial Indiscretion: Ramsey Clark and the Selective Non-Prosecution of Stokely Carmichael, 62 S.C. L. Rev. 1 (2010)
Drawing the Ethical Line: Controversial Cases, Zealous Advocacy, and the Public Good: Foreword, 44 Ga. L. Rev. 913 (2010)
Representing Saddam Hussein: The Importance of Being Ramsey Clark, 42 Ga. L. Rev. 47 (2007)
“Lawyers” Not “Liars”: A Modified Traditionalist Approach to Teaching Legal Ethics, 51 St. Louis U. L.J. 1119 (2007) (Invited)
A Teacher’s Teacher, 39 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 1405 (2006)
Reconsidering the Corporate Attorney-Client Privilege: A Response to the Compelled-Voluntary Waiver Paradox, 34 Hofstra L. Rev. 897 (2006) (Invited) (selected for republication in the Corporate Practice Commentator (Thompson West 2007))
“May It Please the Camera, . . . I Mean the Court” – An Intrajudicial Solution to an Extrajudicial Problem, 39 Ga. L. Rev. 83 (2004) (republished in A Century of Legal Ethics: Trial Lawyers and the ABA Canons of Professional Ethics (Fox, Martyn & Pollis, ed.) (ABA Publishing, 2009))
Ethics 2000 and Beyond: Reform or Professional Responsibility as Usual?: Foreword, 2003 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1173 (December 2003)
Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: Professional Misconduct, Not Legitimate Advocacy, 22 Rev. Litig. 209 (2003)
Ending Illegitimate Advocacy: Reinvigorating Rule 11 Through Enhancement of the Ethical Duty to Report, 62 Ohio St. L.J. 1555 (2001)
Other Publications
An Ill-Defined Path to an Ideal Destination, DICTA, Vol. 51, Issue 7 (Aug. 2023)
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy of Leadership – The Seven C’s, Leading as Lawyers Blog (March 2023)
To Respond or Not to Respond?: Confidentiality and Defending Against Online Critics, 27 Ga. Bar J. 16 (Oct. 2021)
What William Barr Can Learn from Ramsey Clark, Stanford Univ. Press Blog (Jan. 2020)
“No Comment” or “Anything Goes” – A Retrospective View on the Regulation of Public Commentary by Lawyers, Advocate, Vol. 43 (2009)
Georgia's New Battleground: Five Georgia Law Professors Examine the State's New Tort Legislation – Offers of Judgment, Advocate, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2005)
A Practitioner’s Perspective on Academia, Nat’l Association for Law Placement Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 3 (March 1999)