Michael A. Simons
Associate Dean for
Faculty Scholarship and Professor of Law.
Professor Simons graduated magna cum laude from the
College of the Holy Cross in 1986 and magna cum laude from
Harvard Law School in 1989, where he was an editor of the
Harvard Law Review. Following graduation, he clerked for
the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer of the United States District
Court for the District of Columbia. He later served as a staff
attorney for The Washington Post, as an associate at Stillman,
Friedman & Shaw, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in
the Southern District of New York.
As an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Professor Simons conducted fraud,
narcotics, and murder trials, and argued numerous appeals. His
notable cases at the U.S. Attorney's Office included the
prosecution of Daiwa Bank for its cover-up of a $1.1 billion
unauthorized trading loss (the largest in U.S. history), and the
prosecution of Jeffrey Nichols, one of the country's most notorious
"deadbeat dads." In 1996, he was awarded the Attorney General's
Award for Distinguished Service.
Professor Simons joined the St. John's faculty in 1998, and was
selected by the students as "Professor of the Year" in 2000. In
2005, he was named Associate Dean for
Faculty Scholarship. In that position, Professor Simons
is broadly responsible for facilitating and coordinating faculty
scholarly activities, for publicizing faculty scholarship, and for
promoting productivity and excellence in faculty scholarship.
Specific responsibilities include coordinating the planning of
academic conferences, faculty workshops, and other opportunities
for scholarly exchange, advising junior faculty members on
scholarship issues, and advising the Dean on matters relating to
faculty scholarship.
Professor Simons'
scholarship has focused on sentencing, prosecutorial
decision-making, and punishment theory. His articles have
appeared in the New York University Law Review, the
Vanderbilt Law Review, the Villanova Law Review,
the St. John’s Law Review, The Catholic Lawyer, and
the Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. His
courses include Criminal Law, Evidence, Sentencing Seminar,
Introduction to Law, and the Prosecution Clinic.
He is a frequent lecturer on New York Evidence topics, including
providing regular updates on Recent Developments in Criminal
Evidence to the New York State judiciary through the
New York State Judicial Institute.
Since 2001, he has been a Fellow with the Vincentian Center for Church and
Society. During 2005 and 2006, he was a member of the New
York City Mayor's
Advisory Committee on the Judiciary. He is also involved
with St. John's efforts to increase the diversity of the legal
profession, including by organizing and hosting the annual Catholic
Middle Schools Mock Trial Program, by teaching in the Ronald H.
Brown Center's Summer Prep Program, and by lecturing for Legal
Outreach.