Philip K. Howard

Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America, whose writings, advocacy initiatives, speeches, and reform proposals have figured prominently in national discussion.

The son of a minister, Howard got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel Prize-winner Eugene Wigner and has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He has advised national political leaders on legal and regulatory reform since the 1990s, and wrote the introduction to Vice President Al Gore’s book Common Sense Government. He is the author of The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995, with a new edition in 2011), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002), and Life Without Lawyers (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009). He is a also a prominent civic leader in New York City, and chaired the committee that installed the Tribute in Light memorial  for victims of September 11. He is a partner  of the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP.

Howard writes periodically for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, and has appeared on The  Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, 20/20, Nightline, and numerous other programs. His talk at the TED conference has been widely distributed. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children. 

Read Philip K. Howard’s entry on Wikipedia here.