Patrice Simms

Vice President of Litigation for Healthy Communities, Earthjustice

Patrice Simms is a highly accomplished environmental attorney and thought leader, who has spent twenty-five years in the environmental law arena as an advocate, academic, attorney and policymaker. Simms currently serves as Vice President of Litigation for Healthy Communities at Earthjustice.

Simms began his career as an attorney in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of General Counsel, and later served as a counsel to EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board and as a Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. After the 2020 election, Simms led the EPA Agency Review Team for the Biden-Harris transition, and recently taught Environmental Justice at Harvard Law School as a visiting professor. Additionally, Simms served in the Obama Administration as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. And prior to joining Earthjustice in 2017, he was a law professor at Howard University School of Law, teaching, writing, and speaking on various subjects related to environmental law and environmental justice. 

Simms served on the Earthjustice Board of Trustees for five years and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Environmental Integrity Project. A recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, he was a founding steering committee member of the Green Leadership Trust and Green 2.0, and is a member of the American College of Environmental Lawyers. Simms received his law degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and completed his undergraduate studies at Northeastern University in Boston.