Honorable Janice Rogers Brown: ACTA Board Member and Retired U.S. Circuit Judge

Judge Janice Rogers Brown was confirmed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 8, 2005. From 1996 to 2005, Brown was an Associate Judge of the California Supreme Court. Previously, she served as an Associate Justice of the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento and as the Legal Affairs Secretary to Governor Pete Wilson. The Legal Affairs Office monitored all significant state litigation and had general responsibility for supervising departmental counsel and acting as legal liaison between the Governor’s office and executive departments. Her diverse duties there ranged from analyses of administration policy, court decisions and pending legislation, to advice on clemency and extradition.   

Prior to joining Governor Wilson’s senior staff, Judge Brown was an associate at Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor, a government and political law firm. Before joining the firm, Brown served as Deputy Secretary and General Counsel for the state’s Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, working primarily with business regulatory departments. She came to BT&H after eight years in the Attorney General’s Office, where she worked in both the criminal appellate and civil trial divisions. She also worked for two years for the Legislative Counsel and previously served as an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law. 

Brown served as a member of the Independent Advisory Board to the Institute for Legislative Practice at the McGeorge School of Law, and is a former member of the Judicial Council of California, having served on the Judgeship Needs Advisory Committee and the 2020 Vision Commission on the Future of the California Courts.  She chaired California’s White Collar Crime Task Force and is affiliated with the American Judges Association, the American Judicature Society and the Federalist Society. She also sits on the Board of Regents for both Pepperdine University and the University of the Pacific. 

Janice Brown is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Pepperdine University and Southwestern School of Law, and received the UCLA School of Law Alumnus of the Year award in 1998 and UCLA’s 2004 Award for Excellence in Public Service.  She also has been honored with the Jurisprudence Award of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgetown University Chapter of the Federalist Society, a Distinguished Service Award from the California State University, Sacramento, Alumni Association, as well as a Distinguished Jurist Award from the California Lincoln Club. 

Judge Brown is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and California State University, Sacramento, where she majored in Economics. In 2004, Judge Brown received a Master of Laws degree in Judicial Process after completing the Graduate Program for Judges at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Brown retired from the bench in 2017.