Over a span of more than three decades, Dr. Simons has been active in the area of Russian, East
European and comparative law. His involvement in the academic world includes teaching (in
English as well as in Dutch and Russian) and supervising the work of doctoral candidates and
undergraduate students as well as guiding scholars who submit their work to the Institute’s
publications (see below). Some of his current research interests are at the borders of public and
private law and involve fundamental legal concepts – in a comparative perspective; these include
public policy, reasonableness and fairness as tools to strengthen the ‘social character’ of Russian
law and society, the harmonization of law versus regulatory competition in the CIS region, issues
of access to justice in the state and private sectors (courts of law and alternative dispute resolution
tribunals) and curriculum development.

Dr. Simons’ practical legal experience has been in the US as well as in the European Union (EU) and
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). He has been an attorney in a US manufacturing firm.
In the European Legal Space, he has founded and managed law offices in the CIS where he also has
assisted public- and private-sector clients in their international transactions. Dr. Simons also has
been a senior member of multi-disciplinary teams advising governmental entities and private-sector
players on privatization transactions in the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Legal proceedings in state courts and alternative dispute resolution tribunals are areas in which he
has experience; he also has been an arbitrator in Russia and the EU.

Since the early 1990s – together with his predecessor in the Leiden chair of East European Law, Dr.
Ferdinand Feldbrugge – Dr. Simons has helped to design, secure funding for and participate in the
implementation of a multi-year, law-reform effort involving lawyers and policy makers from Russia
and other jurisdictions. This has been centered on the new Russian and Kazakh Civil Codes and,
also, on CIS Model Legislation in the private-law field. As an outgrowth of this work, Simons and his
predecessor also established the first scholarship program of its kind for young lawyers from Russia
and the CIS to further their studies in The Netherlands and Belgium. For several years, Simons also
was Director of and taught in the Leiden Law Faculty’s International Business Law LLM Program;
he also was the Executive Director (Leiden) of the Leyden/Amsterdam/Columbia Summer Program
in American Law.