Law, Justice, and Technology Initiative 2024 in Review
This is a feature also shared in the CWSL Fall 2024 Alumni Magazine. You can find a pdf of these pages here.
California Western’s Law, Justice, and Technology Initiative (LJTI) is designed to equip students with the training and resources to become leaders in the law, attuned to the latest developments in the law of technology and the technology of lawyering. The LJTI will also serve to educate the community at large, organizing conferences and speaker series that will address the pressing questions at the intersections of law, technology, and social justice.
Supporting Students Seeking Careers in Privacy Law
This past spring, $25,000 from donor funds was allocated to support students pursuing the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ certificate in privacy law, and two students have already received scholarships to cover the costs associated with the certificate exam. One of those students, James Thomas ’24, said California Western “not only allowed me to work with clients on real-world intellectual property deliverables, but the program also allowed me to coauthor comments submitted to the copyright office and an article appearing in the next issue of the Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, giving me the ability to be a part of the conversation on artificial intelligence and copyright law while still in law school. Cal Western’s reimbursement program means I will not have to wait to continue my legal education and can add immediate value to future employers.”
(Students interested in applying may contact Professor Art Neill for more information.)
Advisory Board
As of this June, nine industry leaders have joined the LJTI advisory board to help broaden the program’s reach throughout San Diego and Southern California.
Michael Donahue ’11 — Director, Business and Legal Affairs, Netflix Documentaries
Jayshree Gerken ’02 — Partner, Loza & Loza LLP
Joni Laura — Former Senior Director, Legal Counsel, Qualcomm and Sony
Marcela Mendez — CWSL Professor, Privacy Law
Taneashia Morrell — Senior Contracts and Licensing Associate, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Emory Roane — Policy Counsel, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
Joshua Salinas ’11 — Senior Litigation Associate, Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Shaun Spaulding — Lead Counsel, Wikimedia Foundation
Maresa Talbert ’17 — Founding Attorney, CEO, Talbert Law Office
New Curricular Offerings
This fall, CWSL added a new academic concentration in Intellectual Property, Privacy, and Media Law, allowing students to gain mastery and added credentials in this burgeoning area. In October, the school will host its annual LJTI conference. This year’s theme will be Criminal Law and Artificial Intelligence. This spring, two new electives will integrate AI explicitly into the curriculum.
California Western Faculty Lead the Discussion on Technology and Justice
As legal and ethical questions around new technologies arise, California Western faculty are eager to investigate and answer them. Recent and forthcoming faculty publications on the law, justice, and technology front include:
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Central Bank Digital Currencies in the Era of Decoupling the World’s Two Largest Economies, 19 Wash. J. L. Tech. & Arts (2024).
- https://www.bu.edu/ilj/files/2024/08/42.1.4-Cooper_Are-Friends-Electric.pdf, 42 B.U. Int'l L.J. 121 (2024).
- Intellectual Property Piracy in the Time of the Metaverse, 63 IDEA 479 (2023).
- Fixing Copyright Registration for Online Video Creators: The Case for Group Registration of Published Videos, 28 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. Vol. 32, No. 3 (June 2024).
Brenda M. Simon, Artificial Intelligence and the Self-Represented Inventor, Loy. L.A. L. Rev., forthcoming, available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4792163
- Bespoke Regulation of Artificial Intelligence, 57 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024).
- Using Artificial Intelligence in the Law Review Submissions Process, 56 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 347 (2022), available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4113550
Kristin van de Biezenbos, Climate Proof Electricity, 2025 Utah L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025).
- The Case Against Regional Transmission Monopolies, 101 Wash. U. L. Rev. 69 (2023).
- Lost in Transmission: A Constitutional Approach to Achieving a Nationwide Net Zero Electricity System. 59:3 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 629 (2022).
Spencer Williams, “Algorithmic Price Gouging”, The Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and the Law (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024).
- Generative Contracts, Ariz. St. L. J. (forthcoming 2024), available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4582753