Ada Brown

Judge Ada Brown is an Associate in the Dallas office of McKool Smith.

Prior to joining McKool Smith, Judge Brown was judge of Dallas County Criminal Court #1 where she presided over 1,888 criminal cases and 12 capital murder examining trials. She became the youngest sitting judge in Texas when she took the bench at age 30.

Judge Brown was a Dallas County Assistant District Attorney for 5 & 1/2 years before taking the bench. She was promoted to Chief Prosecutor within 7 months of her hiring date and served as Chief Prosecutor of 4 criminal courts.

As a lead felony prosecutor, Judge Brown had a 100% jury trial conviction rate.  She prosecuted 100+ jury trials during her career as a criminal prosecutor, including prosecution of the Fair Park Rapist, the Dallas Info Mart Murder, and a Mexican Mafia prison gang murder.

Judge Brown has been an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University Law School and she is a NITA (National Institute for Trial Advocacy) faculty member.  She has taught at various trial skills, deposition skills, and child advocacy NITA programs. 

Judge Brown is a member of the Committee for a Qualified Judiciary and she is a member of the Texas Advisory Board for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  Since 2008, Judge Brown has been a commissioner for the Texas Department of Public Safety. 

She has also been a featured speaker at the 2007 Texas College for Judicial Studies, as well as at the Texas Annual Judicial Conferences in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2011. 

Judge Brown is a member of Mensa, an organization whose members have IQs in the top 2 percent of the nation.  She was featured in the October 11, 2010 USA Today article “Mensa’s Face is Changing as it Catches a Young Brain” and was profiled in Black Enterprise Magazine’s June 2010 article “Celebrating Mensa’s Best and Brightest.”  Judge Brown’s article “Batson and Peremptory Strikes in Criminal and Civil Cases” was given a best feature story award from the State Bar of Texas in 2008.

Judge Brown is a volunteer editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News newspaper and she speaks both French and Spanish.

Representative Matters

• Medtronic, Inc. v. Boston Scientific. Ada served as a member of the trial team representing Medtronic in its patent infringement lawsuit involving a series of dilation and balloon catheters used in the surgical treatment of heart disease in which the jury awarded a very favorable verdict on behalf of Medtronic.
• Myklatun et al. v. Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. et al. Ada served as a member of the trial team for Halliburton in a dispute arising out of a distribution agreement for micro-emulsions used in hydraulic fracturing.
• Versata Software v. SAP. Ada served as a member of the trial team representing Versata, an innovative enterprise software company, in a patent-infringement action against the dominant industry player, SAP in the May 2011 retrial. The result was a $345 million verdict as well as a permanent injunction against SAP. In September 2011, the District Court entered a final judgment for $391 million (including interest). The case is currently on appeal.

Awards & Recognition

• Named Rising Star by Texas Monthly magazine, 2005
• Appointed Chair, Dallas Bar Association Criminal Justice Committee, 2007 and 2008
• Appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve as Commissioner on Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education, 2008
• In 2008, appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve as Commissioner of the Texas Public Safety Commission - the commission responsible for formulating and overseeing policies for the Texas Department of Public Safety, the State's chief law enforcement agency. In 2011, reappointed by Governor Perry to serve as Commissioner of the Texas Public Safety Commission until December 2017.

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