Russell Brown (judge)

The Honourable Russell Brown
Justice Russell Brown in September 2016
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
Incumbent
Assumed office August 31, 2015
Nominated by	Stephen Harper
Appointed by	David Johnston
Preceded by	Marshall Rothstein
Personal details
Born	(1965-09-15) September 15, 1965 (age 51) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Spouse(s)	Heidi Brown (m. 1994)
Alma mater	University of British Columbia University of Victoria University of Toronto

Russell S. Brown (born September 15, 1965) is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Russell S. Brown was raised in Burns Lake, British Columbia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia in 1987 and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Victoria in 1994. He also has a Master of Laws degree (2003) and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree (2006) - both from the University of Toronto . He was admitted to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995 and to the Bar of Alberta in 2008.

Brown was admitted to the Bar of British Columbia in 1995 and to the Bar of Alberta in 2008. He was an associate at Davis & Company (now DLA Piper LLP) in Vancouver from 1995 to 1996 and at Carfra & Lawton (now Carfra Lawton LLP) in Victoria from 1996 to 2004. From 2008 to 2013, he was associate counsel to Miller Thomson. From 2004 to 2013, Brown was a member of the Faculty of Law at the University of Alberta, both as a professor (tenured from 2009) and for the last two years as an associate dean. His main areas of practice were commercial law, medical negligence, personal injury, insurance law and trusts and estates.

Brown is the author of a treatise on claims under negligence law for economic loss, as well as the author or co-author of over 30 published law review articles, book chapters and review essays on tort law, property law and civil justice.

In addition, while a member of the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law, Brown published posts on the faculty's blog expressing his views on a number of topics. He called the Canada Health Act “an inappropriate [federal] intrusion into sacrosanct provincial swimming pools,” referred to third party election spending limits as "odious" and "restriction on private expenditure during elections" as "objectionable", described human rights commissions as "puritanical functionaries", and described himself as a "conservative libertarian".

On February 8, 2013, he was appointed to the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta. He was then appointed to the Court of Appeal of Alberta on March 8, 2014. As a Court of Appeal judge sitting in Edmonton, Justice Brown also served as a Judge of the Court of Appeal for the Northwest Territories and a Judge of the Court of Appeal of Nunavut. He was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada on August 31, 2015.