Philip K. Howard | |
|---|---|
 Philip K. Howard | |
| Born | October 24, 1948 Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Education | The Taft School Yale University (BA) University of Virginia School of Law (JD) |
| Website | |
| philipkhoward | |
Philip King Howard [1] (born October 24, 1948) is an American lawyer and writer. He has written on the effects of modern law and bureaucracy on human behavior and the workings of society. He started The Common Good, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization which advocates simplifying government. [2] [3]
Howard is the author of The Death of Common Sense (1995), [3] The Collapse of the Common Good (2002), [4] Life Without Lawyers (2009), [5] The Rule of Nobody (2014), [6] Try Common Sense (2019), [7] Not Accountable (2023), [8] and Everyday Freedom: Designing the Framework for a Flourishing Society (2024). [9] The Death of Common Sense, which criticized over-regulation and excessive litigation, became a bestseller. [3] Howard also founded and heads Common Good, a nonprofit that advocates for simpler, goal-oriented regulation and reliable boundaries on litigation. The organization's Board of Directors has included Bill Bradley, Tom Kean, George McGovern, and Alan Simpson. [3]
In a partnership with the Harvard School of Public Health, Howard proposed special health courts for the handling of medical malpractice suits. [10] [11] In 2012, Howard curated a six-month series for The Atlantic called “America the Fixable,” which featured numerous guest writers giving their reform ideas on specific topics. [12] In January 2017, Howard argued that the collective bargaining in the current civil service system is unconstitutional and should be replaced by executive order. [13] [14] In a 2019 paper published by the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University, he explored “Bureaucracy vs. Democracy: Examining the bureaucratic causes of public failure, economic repression, and voter alienation.” [15] In a paper published by the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University Law School, he makes the case for “Restoring Accountability to the Executive Branch.” [16] In a 2021 paper published by Yale Law Journal, “From Progressivism to Paralysis,” Howard traces how the Progressive Movement’s vision of neutral public administration evolved into public paralysis. [17] In a column for The Washington Post commenting on the paper, George F. Will wrote: “So, ‘slowly but inevitably a sense of powerlessness’ pervades public and private institutions.” [18]
In April 2017, Howard joined President Donald Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, [19] advising on infrastructure permitting. [20] His 2015 report "Two Years, Not Ten Years," detailing the economic and environmental costs of delaying infrastructure approvals, has influenced the Trump Administration's infrastructure proposals, including their call for approvals to be made within two years. [2] [21] Critics such as the Natural Resources Defense Council disagree with the report's findings, arguing that money, not permits, is the reason infrastructure projects are delayed, and that Howard's report relied on outdated statistics. The Trump administration's infrastructure proposals, released in February 2018 and July 2020, contained many of the recommendations from the report. [22]
In a 2019 article for a Capitol Hill newspaper, Howard characterized his political perspective as radical centrist. [23] In June 2020, Howard launched the nonpartisan Campaign for Common Good calling for “spring cleaning commissions” and proposing simplified government regulation in areas like healthcare and education. [24] Howard is a former chairman of the Municipal Art Society of New York, [25] and was co-recipient of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Medal in 2020. [26] He also chaired the committee that organized the Tribute in Light memorial for victims of the September 11 attacks. [27] [28]
Howard's work has been praised by New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist George Will, the latter of whom called Life Without Lawyers "2009's most needed book on public affairs". [29] [30] In contrast, Consumer Watchdog has accused Howard of having "a deep disregard for public use of the justice system" [31] and favoring corporate over consumer interests. In a Newsweek review of Life Without Lawyers, Dahlia Lithwick criticized Howard for ignoring the value of other areas of law when pushing for tort and malpractice reform, writing that "the one thing scarier than a bus full of lawyers is a bus without them." [32]
Between 2010 and 2014, Howard was a guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart three times, where he talked about starting a movement to streamline government and restore individual responsibility at every level of society. [33] [34] [35]
The Rule of Nobody was among the finalists for the Hayek Book Prize of the Manhattan Institute in both 2015 and 2016. [36]
Writing in The Washington Post, Robert Litan described Try Common Sense as a call "for pushing a giant reset button" and noted that Howard "makes a convincing case that in many ways government doesn't work." [37] Writing in The New York Times, Mark Green described the book as a "jeremiad against 'regulation'." [38] In April 2020, New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote that Howard had “the right idea” in proposing a “Recovery Authority” to help America come out of the COVID crisis. [39] Not Accountable has been reviewed favorably by the Wall Street Journal and other outlets. [40] [41] [42] In his Substack, Sanity Clause, Joe Klein called Not Accountable “the clearest case against this flagrant distortion of American democracy.” [43] Union leader Randi Weingarten criticized the book as “a barrage of empty right-wing rhetoric.” [44] In discussing Everyday Freedom, Francis Fukuyama wrote "Philip's argument is an important one that needs to be made." [45]
Howard was born in Atlanta, Georgia on October 24, 1948 [46] and grew up in Eastern Kentucky, the son of a Presbyterian minister. [47] He attended on scholarship Taft School, from which he received the 2018 Horace Dutton Taft Alumni Medal, Yale College, and the University of Virginia Law School. [48] He practiced law at Sullivan & Cromwell before starting a firm, Howard, Darby & Levin (later Howard, Smith & Levin). [49] In 1999, his firm merged with Covington & Burling, where Howard became Vice-Chair and, after his retirement from the partnership, became senior counsel. [50]
Howard also wrote the introduction to Al Gore's book Common Sense Government.
Rudolph William Louis Giuliani is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student, lawyer, and faculty divisions; the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events, lectures, and other activities, it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing conservative views to interact with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
King & Spalding LLP is an American multinational corporate law firm that is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, with offices located in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. It has over 1,300 lawyers in 23 offices globally. It is Am Law 100, Global 30, and white-shoe firm.
Roy Marcus Cohn was an American lawyer and prosecutor who came to prominence for his role as Senator Joseph McCarthy's chief counsel during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954, when he assisted McCarthy's investigations of suspected communists. In the late 1970s and during the 1980s, he became a prominent political fixer in New York City. He also represented and mentored New York City real estate developer and future U.S. President Donald Trump during his early business career. His other clients included New York Yankees baseball club owner George Steinbrenner, Aristotle Onassis, and alleged Mafia "bosses" Fat Tony Salerno, Carmine Galante, and John Gotti.
Common Cause is a watchdog group based in Washington, D.C., with chapters in 35 states. It was founded in 1970 by John W. Gardner, a Republican, who was the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in the administration of President Lyndon Johnson as well as chair of the National Urban Coalition, an advocacy group for minorities and the working poor in urban areas. In its early days, Common Cause focused its efforts on ending the Vietnam War and lowering the voting age from 21 to 18.
The United States attorney for the Southern District of New York is the chief federal law enforcement officer in eight New York counties: New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, the office represents the United States government in criminal and civil cases across the country. The SDNY handles a broad array of cases, including but not limited to those involving white collar crime, domestic terrorism, cybercrime, public corruption, organized crime, and civil rights disputes.
The National Security Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-governmental, non-profit research and archival institution located on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1985 to check rising government secrecy. The National Security Archive is an investigative journalism center, open government advocate, international affairs research institute, and the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government. The National Security Archive has spurred the declassification of more than 15 million pages of government documents by being the leading non-profit user of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), filing a total of more than 70,000 FOIA and declassification requests in its over 35+ years of history.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) watchdog organization devoted to U.S. government ethics and accountability. Founded in 2003 as a counterweight to conservative government watchdog groups such as Judicial Watch, CREW works to expose ethics violations and corruption by government officials and institutions and to reduce the role of money in politics.
Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
William Pelham Barr is an American attorney who served as the United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the administration of President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2020.
Amity Ruth Shlaes is an American conservative author, writer, and columnist. Shlaes has written five books, including three New York Times Bestsellers. She currently chairs the board of trustees of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and serves as a Presidential Scholar at The King's College in New York City. She is a recipient of the Bastiat Prize and, more recently, the Bradley Prize.
The Foreign Emoluments Clause is a provision in Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution, that prohibits the federal government from granting titles of nobility, and restricts members of the federal government from receiving gifts, emoluments, offices or titles from foreign states and monarchies without the consent of the United States Congress. Also known as the Titles of Nobility Clause, it was designed to shield the federal officeholders of the United States against so-called "corrupting foreign influences". The clause is reinforced by the corresponding prohibition on state titles of nobility in Article I, Section 10, and more generally by the Republican Guarantee Clause in Article IV, Section 4.
Covington & Burling LLP is an American multinational law firm. Known as a white-shoe law firm, it is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and advises clients on transactional, litigation, regulatory, and public policy matters. The firm has additional offices in Beijing, Brussels, Frankfurt, Dubai, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Boston.
Cyrus Roberts Vance Jr. is an American attorney and politician who served as the District Attorney of New York County, New York, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney. He was previously a principal partner at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Iason, Anello, & Bohrer, P.C. He is the son of Cyrus Vance Sr., former Secretary of State under President Jimmy Carter. Vance did not seek reelection as District Attorney in the 2021 election, and was succeeded by Alvin Bragg. He is currently a partner at Baker McKenzie.
Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again is a non-fiction book by businessman Donald Trump, first published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster in 2015. A revised edition was subsequently republished eight months later in trade paperback format under the title Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America. Like his previous work Time to Get Tough (2011) did for the U.S. presidential election in 2012, Crippled America outlined Trump's political agenda as he ran in the 2016 election on a conservative platform.
Noel John Francisco is an American lawyer who served as Solicitor General of the United States from 2017 to 2020. He was the first Asian American confirmed by the United States Senate to hold the position. Francisco is now a partner at the law firm Jones Day.
James David Zirin is an American lawyer, author, and television talk-show host.
Andrew P. Bakaj is a Washington, D.C. attorney and former intelligence officer with the Central Intelligence Agency. He was the principal attorney representing the whistleblower who filed the initial complaint that led to the launch of multiple investigations by the United States Congress into the Trump–Ukraine scandal, the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, and, ultimately, the first impeachment of Donald Trump.
Mark Floyd Pomerantz is an American attorney. He is a member of the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, generally referred to as Paul, Weiss. In February 2021, he left that firm to assist with the Manhattan District Attorney's investigation into the finances of former president Donald Trump until his resignation from the case in February 2022.
Carey R. Dunne is an American attorney. He is known for leading the criminal investigation of Donald Trump for the office of the Manhattan District Attorney until his resignation from the case, alongside his colleague Mark F. Pomerantz, in February 2022. In that role, Dunne successfully argued Trump v. Vance before the United States Supreme Court in May 2020; the court held that President Trump was required to comply with a state grand jury subpoena for his tax returns. Prior to his service at the DA's Office, Dunne was a longtime partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he specialized in white collar criminal defense. Dunne is a past president of the New York City Bar Association.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
