Brandy Johnson | Simmons Law School | SIU

Brandy L. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Law at Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School.  She teaches Disability Law, Torts, Workers’ Compensation, Health Law, Bioethics, and Medical Malpractice. Professor Johnson also serves as “Of Counsel” for Early & Miranda, P.C. Before joining the faculty as an Associate Law Professor in the Fall of 2023, Professor Johnson was an adjunct member of the SIU Simmons Law School faculty and a senior partner at Early & Miranda, P.C.

Professor Johnson graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science with a minor in the Administration of Justice.  She received her Juris Doctorate, magnum cum laude, from Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School in 2003.  Professor Johnson was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 2003 and in Missouri in 2004.  She received an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell in 2017 and the Illinois State Bar Association’s Diversity Leadership Award in 2025. In 2026, she was elected to be a Fellow of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers. While she mainly specialized in Illinois and Missouri workers’ compensation law and appellate advocacy, Professor Johnson also gained experience in premises liability, personal injury, toxic torts, products liability, and other areas of insurance defense over her twenty-two years of practice.

Professor Johnson serves on the board of the Illinois Chapter of the United Spinal Association, and she has served on committees and in leadership positions for the Illinois State Bar Association, the Missouri Bar Association, the Jackson County Bar Association, and Inn of Court. She was appointed to the Advisory Council for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism's initiative "Bullying in the Legal Profession." She has also given numerous legal, diversity, and disability related presentations to local, state, and nationwide audiences.

Professor Johnson has published in the Journal of Legal Medicine; the Journal of Health Law; Illinois Bar Journal; the Hematology Oncology Clinics of North America Health Law and Policy; the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education; Public Risk Magazine; the HIV/AIDS Desk Reference for Mental Health Professionals; the Missouri Medical Law Report; Forensic Epidemiology in the Global Context; Diversity, Cultural Humility, and the Helping Professions; Workers’ Compensation Practice; the Encyclopedia of Women’s Health; the Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health; the Encyclopedia of Immigrant Health; and the Illinois State Bar Association’s Diversity Matters and Workers’ Compensation newsletters. She has a forthcoming publication in the Quinnipiac Health Law Journal.