STATE REPRESENTATIVE SIMON CATALDO
Massachusetts’ 14th Middlesex District
Service: Teach for America Alum & Nonprofit Leader
Simon is from Concord, Mass., where he lives with his wife and two sons. He is an attorney, non-profit leader, elected Delegate to the Massachusetts Democratic State Convention, Council Member of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, and a former federal prosecutor and inner-city special education teacher.
In 2015, Simon was one of eight law school graduates nationwide drafted into the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Honors Program. He served in a specialized unit focusing exclusively on public corruption. In his first federal trial, Simon was a member of the trial team that prosecuted Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was found guilty and then promptly pardoned by Donald Trump. Simon went on to investigate and prosecute a number of elected and appointed government officials, including a Tallahassee City Commissioner (for extortion) and a Department of Veterans Affairs official (for a multi-million dollar bribery scheme). Since joining private practice last year, Simon has represented clients in civil, white collar, and election law
matters. He has been quoted and published in TIME Magazine, Commonwealth Magazine, and the National Law Review.
Before working at DOJ, Simon clerked for a President Obama appointee on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He went to law school at the University of Virginia, where he was Managing Editor of the Law Review.
Prior to law school, Simon was a special education math teacher in Harlem with Teach for America. There, he founded Harlem Lacrosse, a school-based nonprofit that provides academic, emotional, and athletic support for at-risk youth and that operates in public schools in Boston, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Simon grew Harlem Lacrosse from scratch into a national leader in sports-
based youth development, with over 50 employees and 1,300 student-athletes. Simon currently serves as Harlem Lacrosse’s Board President. His work with Harlem Lacrosse has been profiled in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Concord Journal, and Baltimore Sun. Simon's views on racial and educational inequity in America are accurately reflected in the statement he wrote on behalf of Harlem Lacrosse's Board in the days following Derek Chauvin's murder of George Floyd.
In college, Simon majored in Environmental Science. He has contributed to research on the chemistry of biodiesel, and he wrote his senior thesis on the thermodynamics of residential energy.