Brett Dakin Joins Simons Foundation as General Counsel

The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce that Brett Dakin has joined the foundation as senior vice president and general counsel. As the foundation’s first chief legal officer, Dakin will oversee the legal and compliance teams and provide legal advice and strategic guidance to the organization’s leadership and board of directors.

Dakin comes to the foundation after nearly nine years at the Child Mind Institute, a national nonprofit that supports children struggling with mental health and learning disorders through care, education and science. Dakin served as the organization’s vice president and general counsel, as well as its acting executive director.

Before joining the Child Mind Institute, Dakin worked as assistant general counsel of the Rainforest Alliance; as an associate at the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; and as staff attorney for Lawyers Alliance for New York. He has also served as board chair of Legacies of War, a nonprofit advocating for the removal of Vietnam War–era cluster bombs in Laos.

Dakin holds a law degree from Harvard Law School — where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Human Rights Journal — and a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University.