The Texas Bar Foundation named John G. Browning, a former justice of the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas, the winner of its 2023 Outstanding Law Review Article Award. The annual award honors an outstanding article published in any Texas law review during the preceding year that relates to the legal profession, the practice of law, or substantive law as applied to the practice of law; its regulation, discipline, availability; its improvement or advancement; and its future or past.
Browning’s winning article, “Judged by the (Digital) Company You Keep: Maintaining Judicial Ethics in an Age of Likes, Shares, and Follows,” was published in Volume 12 of the St. Mary’s Journal of Legal Malpractice and Ethics. The article examines what Browning describes as benign conduct on social media by judges—retweeting or sharing an article, “liking” a post, following an individual or entity on Twitter, etc.—that can violate canons of judicial conduct and create an appearance of impropriety or bias. Browning will be presented with the award at the Texas Bar Foundation’s gala on June 23, in conjunction with the State Bar of Texas Annual Meeting in Austin.