Professor Dorothy A. Brown was formerly the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law at Emory University School of Law and an advocate for economic and social justice. She is the author of The Whiteness Of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans- and How We Can Fix It (Crown 3/23/2021). She is well known for her work in a variety of areas: the effects of tax policy by race, class, and/or gender; workplace equity and inclusion; and law school reform. She is also the author of the path breaking Critical Race Theory: Cases, Materials, and Problems currently in its third edition, which applies a racial lens to foundational law school courses such as contracts, property, civil and criminal law and procedure. She is a co-author of Federal Income Taxation: Cases, Problems, and Materials (West Academic Publishing, Sixth and Seventh editions). Dorothy’s new book, Getting To Reparations: How Building A Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past (Crown) will be published on January 20, 2026.

She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Bloomberg, and has written numerous opinion pieces addressing current events in the New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN Opinion, Washington Post, Forbes, National Law Journal and Bloomberg View to name a few.

Currently Dorothy teaches Critical Race Theory, Fundamentals of Income Tax, and Partnership Taxation. She has won teaching awards at every law school she has taught. In 2018 she was co-recipient of the Clyde Ferguson Award 2018 (awarded by the AALS Minority Groups Section to outstanding law teachers who in the course of their careers have achieved excellence in the areas of public service, teaching and scholarship).

Scholarship

Forthcoming Works - Books

Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building A Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past (Crown Publishing forthcoming).

Books

Dorothy A. Brown, Critical Race Theory: Cases, Materials, and Problems (St. Paul, Minn.: West Academic Publishing 4th ed. 2023). [BOOK]

Contributions to Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals

Dorothy A. Brown, Busting Myths, 7 Modern Am. Hist. 326-328 (2024). [WWW]

Selected Contributions to Other Publications

Dorothy Brown, Opportunity Zones: A Better Path Forward, JOTWELL, June 19, 2025 (reviewing Deanna S. Newton, Closing the Opportunity Gap, 102 N.C. L. Rev. 1159 (2024)). [WWW]
Dorothy A. Brown, The Biden Administration’s Racial Equity Challenges, JOTWELL, June 9, 2022 (reviewing Goldburn P. Maynard Jr., Biden’s Gambit: Advancing Racial Equity While Relying on a Race-Neutral Tax Code, 131 Yale L.J. Forum 656 (2022)). [WWW]