Alan K. Simpson
Hon. Alan Simpson served in the U.S. Senate (R-Wyoming) from January 1979 to 1997, where he was the Assistant Republican Leader, 1984-1994; Chairman of the Subcommittee of Immigration and Refugee Policy of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 1980-1984; Nuclear Regulation Subcommittee of Environmental and Public Works, 1980-1984; Chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and member of the Committee on Aging; Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, 1980-1984. From 1994-1996, he was a member of the Finance Committee; 1965-1977, Wyoming State Legislature, 1965-1978, Assistant Majority Leader, Majority Leader, and Speaker Pro Tem.
Mr. Simpson served as Assistant Attorney General, State of Wyoming in 1959, and was City Attorney of Cody, Wyoming, from 1959-1969. Partner: Simpson & Simpson (with father Milward L. Simpson who also served as Governor and U.S. Senator for Wyoming ); Simpson Kepler & Simpson, 1960-1978. Additionally, Mr. Simpson served in the U.S. Army, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Armored Division “Hell on the Wheels” and the 5th Division, U.S. Armed Forces, Germany.
Alan Simpson is currently with the Washington Speakers Bureau in Washington, D.C. He is a very popular speaker and travels the country and abroad to speak to a wide variety of groups and associations regarding current affairs and politics in remarks entitled “Politics is a Contact Sport”.
Mr. Alan Simpson is Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.
Mr. Simpson was a member of the Board of Visitors for the Folger-Shakespeare Library and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. 1994-1996. From 1998 to 2000 Mr. Simpson was the Director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University; and he was a Visiting Lecturer at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy, 1997-2000.
Mr. Simpson served on the Board of Trustees of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1996 and he has been a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild since 1994. He served on the Board of Directors for the Biogen Corporation (now BiogenIDEC Corporation), Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1997-2004 and he was a member of the Board of Directors of American Express Funds, now RiverSource Funds, a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial, Minneapolis, Minnesota from 1997 through 2006.
Mr. Simpson was also a member of the External Advisory Council for BP America Inc.
Alan Simpson is an Emeritus Trustee of the Grand Teton Music Festival, Jackson, Wyoming and was formerly a member of the Board for Pacificorp from 1997-2000.
In March 2010, Mr. Simpson was appointed by the President as the Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and he also served on the ten-member Iraq Study Group formed under the auspices of the congressionally chartered U.S. Institute of Peace in 2006.
Honors & Accolades
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, Notre Dame University, South Bend, Indiana
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, American University, Washington, D.C.
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, The Colorado College, Colorado Springs
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, California Western School of Law, San Diego
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Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana
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Thomas Jefferson Award in Law at University of Virginia, Charlottesville. (The U. Va. equivalent of an Honorary Degree)
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AV Preeminent® Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
Bar Admissions
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Wyoming, 1958
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U.S. District Court, District of Wyoming
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U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit
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U.S. Supreme Court
Education
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J.D., University of Wyoming, 1958
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B.S., University of Wyoming, 1954
Professional Affiliations
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American Bar Association
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Wyoming Bar Association
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Member, Disciplinary Committee, Wyoming Bar Association, 1971
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Park County Bar Association, Founding Member
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American Association for Justice (AAJ)
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Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, Founding Member (WTLA)
Publications & Media
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Simpson, Alan K. “Listen to a Podcast with Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson.” www.burgsimpson.com, May 6, 2019
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VIEW FROM THE FRONT PORCH: The wisdom of Alan Simpson, November 27, 2013
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Black Hills Pioneer: Do you know who Alan Simpson is?
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Wyoming PBS: Nothing Else Matters, March 14, 2013
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CNBC: Interview with John Harwood, live at 10:00am PT / 1:20pm ET, February 1, 2013
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ourColoradonews.com: Alan Simpson targets national debt in local stop, January 22, 2013
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Fox Business: Cavuto by phone, January 10, 2013
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MSNBC: Meet the Press, January 6, 2013
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The TODAY Show: Ex-senator goes ‘gangnam’ for fiscal cliff action
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Face the Nation on CBS: Face in the News: Simpson, Bowles and Booker talk Fiscal Cliff
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“Shooting From the Lip, The Life of Senator Al Simpson” by Donald Loren Hardy (biography). University of Oklahoma Press, 2011
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Part 2 of Jon Stewart’s In-Depth Interview with Alan Simpson
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“Right in the Old Gazoo: A Lifetime of Scrapping with the Press,” William Morrow and Co., New York City, 1996