William H. Simon is the professor of Law at Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...

 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

Professional responsibility is the area of legal practice that encompasses the duties of attorneys to act in a professional manner, obey the law, avoid conflicts of interest, and put the interests of clients ahead of their own interests....

 and Social Policy

Social policy

Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues...

. Simon holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 and a JD from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. 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,"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1025984#PaperDownload 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).