2022 Metcalf Cup and Prize Recipient: Constance Browne

Constance A. Browne is a clinical professor of law at Boston University’s School of Law, where she has taught for 40 years. Her pedagogy has fundamentally improved instruction at the law school and focuses on excellence in crucial skills and competencies critical to lawyering: incisive writing, negotiation, counseling, trial advocacy, and professional ethics.

Professor Browne has been instrumental in developing experiential instruction—whether in the innovative Lawyering Lab, the Student Trial Team Program, or Effective and Ethical Depositions, her popular seminar that employs multiple simulations. Students under her supervision in the Civil Litigation and Justice Program represent Boston-area clients, often from traditionally marginalized groups, in matters ranging from housing and employment to disability rights and divorce. Under her guidance, law students have handled approximately 400 cases—serving as lead counsel and bringing a passion for justice and service to their clients and community. She has earned the law school’s Pro Bono Faculty Award and is a sought-after expert on experiential legal education.

Professor Browne transforms talented but inexperienced students into confident, well-equipped lawyers ready to take on tough cases immediately upon graduation. “Had I not learned from Professor Browne how to carry myself in court and advocate for my clients,” one student said, “I would never have made it through my first few years as a lawyer.” Another wrote: “Connie is a tireless advocate for her students and her clients.”

Professor Browne earned a BA in English, with distinction, from the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham, and her JD from Boston College Law School, where she graduated cum laude and served as an articles editor of the Law Review.

She has been appointed to serve as Guardian Ad Litem for indigent and disabled tenants by the Boston Housing Court and the Newton and Waltham District Courts. Prior to joining the Boston University School of Law civil clinical program, Professor Browne worked in private practice.