Brown oversees all clinical and experiential programs at Fordham Law as well as the Law School’s Housing and Environmental Justice Clinic. She has emerged as a renowned national and international voice for clinical legal education and issues of race and justice.
“I feel really grateful to be in such a supportive community that allows for so many different perspectives and voices to kind of be at the table,” said Brown. “That’s really a gift.”
The M. Shanara Gilbert Award is presented each year to an outstanding emerging clinical law professor recognized for exceptional promise in the field. The prestigious award is for a clinical legal educator who has demonstrated a commitment to teaching and achieving social justice, a passion for providing legal services to individuals and groups most in need, and service to the cause of clinical legal education. Brown was nominated by her peers for this recognition.
Dean Joseph Landau noted, “Through her innovative clinical pedagogy, steadfast advocacy for justice, and deep commitment to mentorship, Dean Brown not only exemplifies the values of clinical legal education but also powerfully carries forward the legacy of M. Shanara Gilbert, making her an exceptionally deserving recipient of this award.”
Before teaching at Fordham Law, Brown was an associate professor and the director of the civil justice clinic at Rutgers Law School. Prior to her academic career, she served as a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2007 to 2015. In this role, she litigated cases arising under the Fair Housing Act, Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“I became a law professor to take a different view of the work,” said Brown. “So instead of being on the ground in the middle of cases, I’m able to step back and look at not just the facts of any particular case, but at more large-scale patterns. This way we might be able to see what we can learn about how the law is operating, particularly on oppressed people.”
At Fordham Law, Brown directs the Housing and Environmental Justice Clinic, where she and her students provide legal representation for clients to help them preserve or achieve the fundamental human right of housing.
Beyond her clinical work, Brown has presented, moderated, or facilitated 49 different panels and working groups from 2016-2024. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Northwestern Law Review, California Law Review, the Brooklyn Law Review, the NYU Journal of Law and Social Change, the Michigan Journal of Race and Law, and the Clinical Law Review among other journals. In 2023, Brown was a selected presenter on the topic of “Black Mobility as a Site of Modern Abolitionism” at the 7th Global Conference on Slavery Past, Present and Future in Accra, Ghana.
“Norrinda’s commitment to teaching and achieving social justice, particularly in the area of race, is seen throughout her teaching, clinical practice, scholarship, and public speaking,” said Professor Michael Martin of Fordham Law, Brown’s predecessor as associate dean of experiential programs. “Her passion for providing legal services and access to justice to individuals and groups in need is evident from her long-standing fight for housing rights for the indigent. Her service to the cause of clinical education is exemplified in her Section leadership, her clinical scholarship, her organizing and presenting at clinical conferences, and her mentoring the next generation of future clinicians.”
Brown has served on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education since January 2020 and as the Section’s Co-Chairperson in 2023. She received the Society of American Law Teachers Junior Faculty Award in January 2021 and the John C. Brittain Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild Outstanding Law Professor Award in 2017. Prior to her academic career, she received three service awards from the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice.
“My experience working alongside Professor Brown in the Housing and Environmental Justice Clinic at Fordham Law School over the past two semesters, beginning in the fall of 2024, has been transformative and pivotal to my development as a legal professional,” said Fordham Law student Cristian Vega ’25.
“[M. Shanara Gilbert] was one of these people who’s like a giant,” reflected Brown. “She worked on issues of South Africa, including … the drafting of their post-apartheid constitution. These are shoes that no one can ever fill, but at least it gives us all something to aim towards, to try to embody in the work that we do.”
