Philip K. Howard - Background

Background

Howard grew up in eastern Kentucky, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He was a scholarship student at the Taft School, Yale College, and the University of Virginia Law School. His first policy job was at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he worked for three summers in the civil defense group, led by Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner, and published a monograph on post-war economic recovery.

Following law school, Howard worked at the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, where he was a principal associate in the Chris-Craft case before the Supreme Court and was also in Kodak’s antitrust cases. As a young lawyer, Howard also became active in civic affairs, chairing the Zoning Committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 in Midtown and leading a number of battles against developers such as Harry Helmsley.

In 1983, Howard founded Howard, Darby & Levin (subsequently Howard, Smith & Levin). That firm merged with the Washington firm Covington & Burling in 1999, of which Howard became Vice-Chair. He remains a practicing partner in Covington’s New York office.

Howard became an officer and then Chairman of the Municipal Art Society of New York, which led the battle to save Grand Central Terminal. Among his other civic projects, Howard opposed the original tower at Columbus Circle, arguing that it would have cast a shadow across Central Park, championed new codes that would increase the signage and lights on Times Square, and built a coalition to persuade the Post Office to relinquish most of the Farley Building so that it can become a new Penn Station.

As a citizen volunteer, Howard pushed to streamline federal OSHA rules on worker safety and worked with EPA Administrator Carol Browner to make environmental rules more flexible.

Howard’s experience as a civic leader led him to explore why government seemed incapable of making sensible choices, even when officials wanted to. This led to writing The Death of Common Sense.

In 2001, a week after the 9/11 attacks, Howard was contacted by architect Richard Nash Gould who suggested that two spotlights be placed at the World Trade Center site. Along with David Rockefeller, Howard organized a committee of leading citizens to support and fund such a project. The “Tribute in Light” memorial went up on the six month anniversary of the attack.