William H. Simon is the professor of Law at

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

holding the ''Arthur Levitt Professor of Law''; and ''Everett B. Birch Professor in Professional Responsibility'' chairs. Simon's areas of expertise are

Professional responsibility Professional responsibility is a set of duties within the concept of professional ethics for those who exercise a unique set of knowledge and skill as professionals. Professional responsibility applies to those professionals making judgments, a ...

and

Social Policy Social policy is a plan or action of government or institutional agencies which aim to improve or reform society. Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize soci ...

. Simon holds a bachelor's degree from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

and a JD from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. Simon is best known for his public stance against unethical lawyers selling unjustified written legal opinions to clients who use such dubious advice to escape criminal consequences of their actions.

Recent publications

*"The Market for Bad Legal Advice: Academic Professional Responsibility Consulting as An Example

Stanford Law Review (forthcoming 2008); * "Wrongs of Ignorance and Ambiguity: Lawyer Responsibility for Collective Misconduct," Yale Journal of Regulation (2005); * "Destabilization Rights: How Public Law Litigation Succeeds," Harvard Law Review (2004) (with Charles Sabel).

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Princeton University alumni Harvard Law School alumni Columbia University faculty Living people Columbia Law School faculty American legal scholars {{US-legal-academic-bio-stub