Seymour Simon was a dissenter, but in the most positive sense that the roles of the lawyer and the judge are to pursue justice.

In a speech to the Jewish Judges Association in 2003, he urged colleagues to follow the law of the land righteously and justly, but to accept the possibility that “the law of the land can often be unfair and unjust.”

The author of 198 majority opinions and 175 dissents during his tenure on the Illinois Supreme Court from 1980 to 1988, Justice Simon died Sept. 26 at age 91 of cancer in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa who graduated in 1938 from the Northwestern University School of Law, he practiced in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for four years before Navy service during World War II.

In 1946 Mr. Simon began his 28-year Chicago practice. During that time he was a Chicago alderman from 1955 to 1961, a member of the Cook County Board from 1961 to 1966, a member of the Public Building Commission from 1961 to 1967, and an alderman again for the next seven years.

In 1974, Mr. Simon was elected to the Illinois Appellate Court, and he was elected to the Supreme Court in 1980. That was the pinnacle of the 21 consecutive elections he won.

He stepped down after eight years, and became a partner in Rudnick & Wolfe, now DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary. He augmented his steadfast record of dissents in capital punishment cases by persuading governor George Ryan in 2000 to commute the sentences of every prisoner on death row.

Mr. Simon was vocal in both his disdain for death sentences, which he determined could not be uniformly and fairly imposed, and the 4-3 Supreme Court opinion in 1977 that reinstated capital punishment.

He publicly decried the concept of stare decisis, cited by colleagues in subsequent reviews, to uphold the death penalty “merely because four judges once said it was correct.”

That ruling recognized alcoholism as a mitigating factor in considering sanctions for lawyers who were trying to deal with their addictions through treatment programs. It led to establishment of Rule 772, which applies probation in certain circumstances.

When James F. Driscoll was LAP president in 1986, he repaid Mr. Simon by securing him as keynote speaker for the annual dinner. The jurist's theme was that “old wrongs need new rights.”

Often honored by legal and civic organizations, Mr. Simon received a Commitment to Justice Award from the Chicago Council of Lawyers and a Justice John Paul Stevens Award from the Chicago Bar Association.

Other tributes include the Judge Learned Hand Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Decalogue Society, and a Hubert L. Will Award from the American Veterans Committee.

Mr. Simon received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the John Marshall Law School, and an Award of Merit from the Northwestern University Alumni Association. A Cook County forest preserve is named in his honor.

Survivors include a son, John B. Simon of Jenner & Block, a past president of the Chicago Bar Association.