RICHARD A. SIMPSON is a partner at Wiley Rein, LLP in Washington, D.C and McLean, Virginia.  Professionals and insurance carriers often retain Mr. Simpson to defend complex or high exposure malpractice claims against lawyers and other professionals, both in trial courts and as appellate counsel.  Mr. Simpson has represented clients regarding cases pending in 45 states, and has acted as lead appellate counsel in ten of the federal courts of appeals and in multiple state appellate courts, including California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, Ohio, Texas and Virginia.  Mr. Simpson’s recent cases include representing a lawyer in a nine-day trial in July of 2011 of a malpractice claim brought by a Nobel Prize-winning economist against a lawyer who represented him in connection with his divorce, obtaining a take nothing judgment based on a jury verdict determining that the client did not breach the applicable standard of care.  Mr. Simpson also represented a law firm on appeal of a large malpractice judgment to the Ohio Supreme Court, which reversed and directed entry of judgment for the law firm in what is generally regarded as the most significant lawyers professional liability decision in Ohio in many years.  Mr. Simpson has been an Adjunct Instructor in Trial Advocacy at the University of Virginia Law School since 2003.