Full Circle: Life After Graduation & Continued Connection to Dartmouth
Continuing on this theme of alumni connection, Mr. Simms has served as a mentor to several Dartmouth undergraduate students, specifically Black student-athletes. These relationships have been very rewarding. As Simms said to me during our conversation, he has had Dartmouth students who “visited [him] in Baltimore and spent days together talking about the law or talking about what they're going to do in terms of their graduate career.” This has created relationships that Mr. Simms has very much valued and enjoyed throughout his adulthood.
Mr. Simms served a term on the Alumni Council, and also has been on and off involved with the Dartmouth Club of Baltimore as well as the Dartmouth Club of Washington, D.C., and he's been very involved in alumni programming and outreach in general.
Away from football, Mr. Simms was a part of the Afro American Society, with a particular focus on connecting with African American Alumni. He would go on to be one of the founders of BADA and serve as its President from 1979-81, and the aforementioned focus on connecting with alumni would certainly serve as beneficial as the organization has grown. Mr. Simms received counsel from many alumni, and being able to lean on fellow Dartmouth alumni helped Mr. Simms to transition to life as a student at Harvard Law School. The mentoring and advice that he received as a student is something that Simms would go on to reciprocate as an alumnus himself.
While staying very much connected to Dartmouth, Mr. Simms has achieved a remarkable legal career that continues to this day. He began his illustrious career in 1977 when he was admitted to the Maryland Bar. From there, his legal career traversed in many directions at different levels within his home state of Maryland. He was an associate attorney at Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, from 1975-77. From there, he became the Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1978-82 and later the Deputy State's Attorney, Baltimore City, from 1983 to January 1988. His next step was State's Attorney, Baltimore City, a role in which he served from January 1988 to February 1995 and was elected by the people of Baltimore for two terms, before being elevated to secretary for the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services from 1995 to 1997. After that two-year period, he was named Secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety, a position he occupied until 2003. In that year, he changed lanes into the private sector and became a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP. This is where Mr. Simms worked for the longest time in his storied career, serving as a partner until his 2020 retirement. Even during his retirement Simms continues to take on cases pro bono to this day.
Overall, Mr. Simms holds an incredible amount of pride in his time at Dartmouth, and acknowledges that the college set him on a path to enjoy a very successful career and meaningful relationships throughout his life. He continues to hold very strong impressions of Dartmouth and the College’s attempts to keep alumni tightly knit and part of the College community.
