Professor Simson’s scholarship analyzes the role of law in the production, maintenance, and dismantling of social hierarchies, with a focus on race and racial hierarchy.
New York, NY (June 28, 2022) – New York Law School (NYLS) Dean Anthony W. Crowell today announced that Professor David Simson is joining NYLS as Associate Professor of Law. His initial teaching assignments include constitutional law, and courses on race and the law. He will be affiliated with the Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law and the Racial Justice Project.
“I am so pleased to welcome David Simson to New York Law School’s distinguished faculty,” said Anthony W. Crowell, NYLS Dean and President. “Professor Simson is an impressive scholar and rising star, conducting critical work on how the law contributes to embedded and unequal social and racial dynamics in our society. As a member of our faculty, he will make incredibly meaningful contributions to the Law School and our students, American legal education, and the profession.”
“I am absolutely thrilled to be joining New York Law School’s warm, collegial, and amazing community and will work my hardest to contribute to its continued success,” said Professor David Simson. “I am excited to help guide new generations of law students and make the instruction of the law accessible, transformative, and inclusive to all. Joining and working together with NYLS’s highly visible, impressive, and impactful scholarly community provides a unique opportunity to further advance our collective understanding of the law’s relationship to unequal social structures and of what must change to provide equal opportunities to all.”
“Professor David Simson is an exceptional addition to our world-class faculty and is already engaged in cutting-edge and vital scholarship with significant implications for society,” said Academic Dean William P. LaPiana. “Professor Simson’s work will be essential in any discussions about how to unravel unfair hierarchies embedded in our law, institutions, and in society in general, and I know he will be a deeply thoughtful instructor and mentor for our students and a collaborative and inclusive colleague.”
Professor Simson’s scholarship analyzes the role of law in the production, maintenance, and dismantling of social hierarchies, with a focus on race and racial hierarchy. His work relies on both social science research as well as critical race approaches to law. His scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review, Houston Law Review, Denver Law Review, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, Michigan Law Review, and the edited book volume Critical Race Judgments. His article “Whiteness as Innocence” was selected as the Denver Law Review’s 2018 Emerging Scholar Award winner.
Professor Simson joins NYLS after three years as an Acting Assistant Professor at New York University School of Law. At NYU, he taught Lawyering, a full-year simulation-based course introducing first-year students to legal analysis, research, writing, client counseling, negotiation, and oral advocacy. Before joining NYU, Professor Simson was the Greenberg Law Review Fellow at UCLA School of Law where he taught employment discrimination law and a self-designed seminar titled “Race, Social Psychology, and the Legal Process” which he will teach at NYLS in the Spring 2023 term.
Professor Simson graduated from UCLA School of Law with a specialization in Critical Race Studies and received a B.S.B.A. in International Business from the University of Denver. After law school and before entering academia, he was a litigation associate in the Los Angeles and London offices of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.