Philip Howard

Philip K. Howard is a tireless public advocate for reform. He has advised leaders of both parties on reform initiatives, covering topics from regulatory simplification to overhauling bureaucratic institutions. The author of The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America and Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines our Freedom, he is also a periodic contributor to the op-ed pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and speaks before judicial, government, and professional organizations around the country. In the Oxford Companion To American Law, Howard has contributed to the section on American law since 1968. His forthcoming book, Life Without Lawyers, is due out in early 2009. Exclusively represented for lectures by Leading Authorities, Philip K. Howard conveys his deep understanding of the role of government, law, and regulation in the functioning of business and the lives of citizens.  

A Man in Demand. Currently vice-chairman of Covington & Burling, Howard was special advisor to the Securities and Exchange Commission on regulatory simplification. He has worked on environmental and management reforms with Vice President Al Gore's Reinventing Government program, advised the Republican leadership on regulatory reform, and worked on overhauling civil service and other bureaucratic institutions with several governors, including Zell Miller in Georgia, Bill Weld in Massachusetts, and Lawton Chiles in Florida.  

Strong-Willed Civic Leadership. As a civic leader in New York, he has held a variety of community, teaching, and volunteer government positions. As a young lawyer, he was chairman of zoning of a Manhattan Community Board, where he led a fight to block developer Harry Helmsley from destroying several parks near the United Nations. Howard is currently chairman of the Municipal Art Society, where he worked with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Brendan Gill, and others to save and restore Grand Central Terminal and other landmarks. The Village Voice named him one of "New York's Heroes" for his leadership in blocking a building that would have cast a shadow across Central Park.  

Howard grew up in small towns in the South, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He was a scholarship student at Taft School, Yale College, and the University of Virginia Law School. Howard lives in Manhattan with his wife and four children.