Jade Brown

Biography

Professor Jade Brown (BU Law ’16), Clinical Associate Professor of Law, is the founder and Executive Director for the Consumer Economic Justice Clinic, which trains students to advocate for low-income clients who have been unjustly denied credit or who are facing unfair debt collection practices. In the Consumer Economic Justice Clinic, Professor Brown invites law students to consider the myriad systemic barriers that prevent individuals from historically marginalized communities from accumulating wealth in the United States, and she teaches students how to leverage consumer law, among other tools, to combat such injustices.

Professor Brown also oversees and runs the Massachusetts Defense of Eviction Answer Project (“MADE Project”), which she implemented at BU Law during the pandemic in 2020 to assist tenants with filing an Answer to eviction cases with the use of the MADE online portal (developed by Quentin Steenhuis and Greater Boston Legal Services). The MADE Project has greatly expanded capacity for tenant representation in eviction cases through the use of law student volunteers at all levels—1Ls, 2Ls, and 3Ls, who assist pro se litigants in the court system. Notably, in 2022, then-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Biden Administration officials recognized BU Law’s MADE Project in a live hearing and credited the Project for its role in keeping eviction below 60 percent of historic averages nationally—well below the 3.7 million evictions filed in a typical year—during the pandemic.

Prior to founding the Consumer Economic Justice Clinic in 2024, Professor Brown taught in the BU Law’s Civil Litigation & Justice Program (CLJP) for four years. In that role, she taught the art of lawyering in the CLJP’s Access to Justice Clinic and, at times, in its Employment Clinic with Professor Connie Brown. In both of these capacities, Professor Brown supervised law students practicing employment, housing, and family law, and she engaged in projects to address systemic injustice.

Before joining the law faculty at BU, Professor Brown was a staff attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), where she practiced housing and consumer law. At GBLS, she represented consumers in a variety of cases including eviction, foreclosure, debt collection, credit reporting, and fraud cases. She also helped to develop a highly regarded Lawyer-for-the-Day Debt Clinic to represent consumers sued by debt collectors in small claims court. As a result of her expertise, Professor Brown has been asked to testify before the Massachusetts Legislature about the effects of wage garnishment on low-income consumers.

Professor Brown is a graduate of both the University of Florida and Boston University School of Law. At BU Law, she was a recipient of the BU Public Interest Fellowship.