Semyon Efimovich Desnitsky (Russian: Семён Ефимович Десницкий; c. 1740 in Nezhin, Russian Empire – June 26, 1789 in Moscow, Russian Empire) was a Russian legal scholar. He was known as a disciple of Adam Smith and introduced his ideas to the Russian public. He was also the first academic to deliver his lectures in Russian language rather than in Latin.