Advocacy Team

Assistant Public Defender

Todd Simons (first syllable is pronounced “sigh”) was born in Texas but grew up in the foothills of Appalachia, about an hour north of Atlanta, in Cumming, Georgia.  After graduating as the most humorous in his senior class he took his talents to Athens, Georgia and attended the University of Georgia. He studied English Literature and as an undergraduate attempted to read the entire third floor of the UGA library.  That is where the stacks of English literature and literature in translation were located.  He was unsuccessful in that goal but did learn the power of the story.  That would remain a focus of his professional career. 

After graduation Mr. Simons taught both American and international students high school English literature at North Atlanta High School (Alma Mater of RuPaul and Jasmine Guy).  He also coached women’s junior varsity soccer, assisted in coaching baseball, created a space where students could read and discuss their creative writing, and was faculty homecoming king.   After five years of teaching Todd realized that was not his path.

Once struck by that epiphany, and looking for a new path, Todd worked as a journalist, an electrician, traveled around Guatemala (if you can go to Lago Atitlan, do), worked as  a bartender and a bouncer, a house parent at a home for orphaned children and some less glamorous jobs before returning to Texas and attending St. Mary’s University School of Law.   

At St. Mary’s School of Law,  Todd clerked for a couple of medium sized law firms and did research for a professor who focused on civil procedure and remedies in constitutional civil rights issues. 

After St. Mary’s, and dunking the bar exam like a donut into coffee, Todd began his career as litigator in criminal courts at the Matagorda County District Attorney’s office.   It was an opportunity to learn on the job.  Todd gained trial experience in misdemeanor and felony courts and left Matagorda County knowing where to stand and when to talk while in a courtroom.  He moved on to more positive and community minded work in the San Angelo City Attorney’s Office. 

In 2013, Todd opened the Law Office of Todd C. Simons.  There he focused on criminal defense and represented clients charged with the most serious felonies and less consequential misdemeanors.  The office was guided by a belief that it is the individual that defines the person and not the charge they are facing. 

Todd has had the opportunity to defend hundreds of people charged with crimes while operating his solo practice.   Every one of those individuals has stories.  The story of that individual was too easily and too often disregarded.   Todd had found the stories Todd wanted to tell. 

Todd has brought his experience, talents and photography to the Concho Valley Public Defenders Office where he continues to represent individuals who don’t deserve to be judged by the worst thing they may have done.  There he continues to fight against draconian drug laws, a justice system that is focused on policing the poor, the plague of private prisons and the thoughtless, lazy and cruel sentencing that labels people “bad” and locks them out of sight in inhumane conditions.   

When not defending Todd reads prodigiously, makes art, plays guitar loudly but not well, uses photography to motivate taking walks, can be a bit obsessed with the history of music, roots for the Atlanta Braves, Georgia Bulldogs and Tottenham Hotspur,  mountain bikes, and has recently taken up birding.