PHILIP K HOWARD is a well-known leader of legal reform in America. He is the author of  Life Without Lawyers (Norton, 2009), as well as the best-seller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995) and The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine, 2002), and he is a periodic contributor to the op-ed pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. A practicing lawyer, Howard is a partner in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP. 

In 2002, Howard founded Common Good (www.cgood.org), a national bipartisan coalition organized to restore common sense to American public life. The Advisory Board of Common Good is composed of leaders from a broad cross-section of American political thought including, among others, former Senators Howard Baker, Bill Bradley, George McGovern and Alan Simpson.  With the cooperation of a number of nonprofit organizations, Howard recently founded NewTalk.org, an online forum of thought leaders.

Howard has long been a civic leader in New York. He is Chair of the Committee that installed the "Tribute in Light" Memorial for those who died on September 11th.  He is also Chair-Emeritus of the Municipal Art Society of New York, a leading civic group that spearheaded initiatives to preserve Grand Central Terminal.

Howard grew up in Eastern Kentucky, the son of a minister, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra.  They have four children.