John M. Simpson has practiced law with Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. for more than thirty-one years. A graduate of Harvard College and former infantry officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, Mr. Simpson attended Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Mr. Simpson has been a Fulbright partner since 1986. Resident in the Washington, D.C., office of the firm for his entire career, Mr. Simpson is currently the partner in charge of Fulbright's Washington litigation practice, managing a group of more than forty partners, associates and other time keepers, and serves on the Litigation Committee of the firm.

Mr. Simpson has handled civil cases at all levels of the American legal system. He has handled jury and bench trials in both federal and state court. He has argued several cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Fourth, Fifth and Eleventh Circuits, the Supreme Courts of North Carolina and West Virginia and the North Carolina Court of Appeals. He is a member of the District of Columbia and North Carolina Bars, the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and multiple lower federal appellate and trial court bars.

Mr. Simpson is experienced in the conduct of complex, protracted federal court litigation and has a strong background in federal administrative law.  He has worked in a number of diverse areas, including the enforcement and interpretation of the federal petroleum price and allocation regulations, private damage litigation under the federal securities laws, tender offer litigation, arbitration, litigation under the Freedom of Information Act, oil and gas, employment discrimination cases based on race, age, natural origin and disability and general commercial and tort litigation matters. Over the years, Mr. Simpson has developed significant experience with the broad range of issues that confront institutions of higher education.  He has also become a leader in the cutting edge area of litigation issues surrounding the enforcement of arbitration agreements which is an expertise that he has utilized in designing arbitration programs for clients as to employment and medical malpractice disputes.

Recently, Mr. Simpson has tried jury cases in the area of medical malpractice and under the federal wiretapping laws, counseled academic institutions in the handling of scientific misconduct investigations and advised a university in the disposition of academic tenure disputes.  He also handled a case of first impression resulting in the first decision by a United States District Court to uphold a pre-dispute arbitration agreement under the Federal Arbitration Act in the medical malpractice context against numerous common law challenges to the validity of the agreement.

• American Bar Association
• District of Columbia Bar
• North Carolina Bar
• National Association of College and University Attorneys

• Who's Who in American Law
• Who's Who in America

• "Navigating the Road Ahead: E-Discovery and Information Management Workshop," Moderator, Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., Washington, D.C., October 2006
• "Defending Arbitration Agreements in Medical Negligence Cases," Second Annual Health Law Symposium, Austin, Texas, June 2006

1978 - J.D., Columbia University School of Law
1972 - B.A., cum laude, Harvard University

In law school, Mr. Simpson was an articles editor of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.  He was licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia in 1979 and North Carolina in 1988.  He is also admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; the Supreme Court and all lower courts of North Carolina; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, Eleventh, Federal, and District of Columbia Circuits; the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims and the U.S. States District Courts for the District of Columbia, Middle and Eastern Districts of North Carolina, Southern District of Texas and District of Colorado.

• Columbia University School Law Board of Visitor (1995 - 2009)
• Columbia Law School Alumni Association of Washington D.C., Board of Directors (1995 - 2007)
• Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program