Honorable William Houston Brown was a U.S. bankruptcy judge for the Western District of Tennessee for 19 years until his retirement on May 31, 2006. Previously, he had been designated to sit in the Middle District of Tennessee, the Southern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Michigan, and the Western District of Kentucky. Judge Brown also served a four-year term on the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Sixth Circuit from 1999 through 2002.

After graduating first in his class, Judge Brown received his law degree and was elected to the Order of the Coif at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the American College of Bankruptcy. In addition to authoring several West publictions, Judge Brown is an editor for Norton Adviser and a contributing editor to Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice 2d.