Ideas & Inquiry
David Simon’s teaching and intellectual interests focus on the intersection of law, governance, institutions, and strategic decision-making. His work explores the role of lawyers within complex organizations, the design of governance systems, and the institutional conditions that shape organizational judgment under uncertainty.
Drawing on experience advising boards and senior executives through regulatory, governance, and reputational challenges, his teaching examines both organizational decision-making and the evolving role of lawyers as strategic advisors within modern institutions.
Corporate Purpose and Institutional Legitimacy
How organizations define purpose, maintain legitimacy, and sustain the implicit “meta-contract” between institutions and stakeholders.
Governance Systems and Organizational Integrity
The design of governance, compliance, and oversight systems that shape organizational behavior, culture, and reputational resilience.
Crisis Response and Institutional Decision-Making
How organizations respond to moments of regulatory, reputational, and operational stress, and the role of leadership and coordination under uncertainty.
Strategic Decision-Making and Organizational Process
The relationship between decision architecture, systems thinking, incentives, and organizational judgment.
Legal Judgment and Executive Decision-Making
Explores the relationship between legal judgment and business strategy, including how organizations deploy legal counsel and how lawyers contribute more effectively to institutional decision-making.
Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
David has served as a Workshop Leader and Guest Lecturer at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, engaging MBA students on the business of law, how executives can more effectively deploy lawyers, and the evolving role of lawyers as strategic advisors within complex organizations.
Non-Market Risk, Regulation, and Institutional Environment
How organizations navigate regulatory scrutiny, political dynamics, stakeholder pressure, and broader non-market forces.
University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison.
The legal profession is on the verge of fundamental disruption, as generative AI develops to replace many routine tasks now performed by lawyers. Robot-lawyers will never replace strategic, trusted advisors, however. Unfortunately, our law schools have done little to prepare new lawyers to fill this role. This course attempts to fill that void and to provide the tools necessary to succeed in the corporate legal practice of the future.
From the course syllabus, Lawyer as Strategic Business Advisor, University of Wisconsin Law School.
Teaching and Academic Engagement
Adjunct Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School
Creator and instructor for Lawyer as Strategic Business Advisor
Workshop Leader and Guest Lecturer, University of Oxford, Saïd Business School
Guest Lecturer, Ave Maria School of Law
Presenter, University of Illinois College of Law Symposium
Co-Chair, University of Wisconsin Law School Compliance Initiative on Generative AI and Emerging Technologies
Selected Writing
Projecting Ethics: How to Create a Corporate Culture of Integrity
Five Practices to Institutionalize Ethics, Integrity and Compliance
Managing GenAI’s Uneven Performance: A Governance Framework for Law Firms
Turn Your Lawyer into a Strategic Weapon