Faculty Spotlight: Professor Spencer Williams

“Contracts is one of the only areas of the law that is primarily opt-in. Contracts promote people working together-- deal-making, compromise. It appeals to me because it’s that rare corner of the legal world where people are there because they want to be there.”  

Spencer Williams, one of California Western School of Law’s three new faculty members, understands that it’s unconventional to be as passionate about contract law as he is— “I admit that I’m weird.” But it’s undeniable that Professor Williams’ passion for the subject has translated into research into the effects of artificial intelligence and automation on transactional law. And it’s clear that his passion sets him apart as a teacher, because he loves nothing more than changing his students’ minds about a subject many assume will be uninteresting or too complex (or both). “It’s gratifying when students come up to me at the end of the semester and say, ‘I thought Contracts was going to be the worst class, but now I think it’s something I actually want to pursue,’” says Professor Williams. “I love seeing that change.”

 Professor Williams started his academic journey at MIT, where he studied Economics and Management Science—studies that continue to inform his interdisciplinary legal research. He also taught for the first time while at MIT, and “absolutely loved it,” he says. “It was clear that teaching was the most enjoyable thing I could do with my career.”  

After MIT, Professor Williams set himself on the path to the law school classroom, enrolling in Stanford’s J.D. program. While in law school, he was a TA for several courses and continued to feel that no matter what, he would “come back around” to teaching. He became even more enamored by the academy when he learned what kind of research law professors are able to do. At Stanford, in the heart of Silicon Valley, Professor Williams began to see that in transactional law, he could perfectly blend his interests and expertise in law, business, economics, and technology. His research remains at the cutting edge, where he sees himself as a scholar of legal automation. “We are at a critical inflection point as a profession. The practice of law is going to change in a way we haven’t seen since the beginning of the internet, and the change is going to be even more monumental,” says Professor Williams. “Part of my job is to make sure that automation is well thought out and that the next generation of lawyers understands the degree of change that is happening and is properly prepared for it.”   

With his J.D. in hand, Professor Williams remained in Silicon Valley, cutting his teeth on corporate securities work for early-stage companies. To any aspiring Silicon Valley transactional lawyers, Professor Williams notes that the work is not for the faint of heart— “it can get very hectic and comes with a lot of uncertainty. You have companies coming to you who know they need a lawyer, but don’t know why they need one. So, you have to be comfortable going outside of your comfort zone.” But, he says, the work is “incredibly intellectually stimulating and rewarding. You’re working with companies that are bringing things to market that never existed before. They’re solving previously unsolvable problems. Your work is going to meaningfully change people’s lives.”  

Ultimately, it was that desire to meaningfully change lives that brought Professor Williams back to the academy. He began his professorial career as a Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Stanford Law School in the Program on Corporate Governance and Practice. He then joined the faculty at Golden Gate University School of Law in 2019, quickly honing his approach to teaching Contracts, grounding everything in real-world examples and the motivations of the parties involved. “Students can intuitively track the motivations in a deal,” says Professor Williams. “If someone thinks they’re getting a million dollars and they only get $200,000, students understand why they’d be upset, why they’d end up in a lawsuit.” He also likes to show students cases where “one party’s behavior is ridiculous,” which is why the first case he teaches every year is a lawsuit about a sale of land in which one party claimed that they had been joking about the deal the whole time. “It’s silly, but it gets to a foundational concept—parties have to agree to be in a contract. How does the law determine whether we have agreed or not?” 

During this period, Professor Williams also began to make waves with his academic work, bringing his penchant for empirical research to the study of the future of law and technology. He acknowledges the dangers associated with AI and the responsibility of lawyers and scholars “to mitigate risk and promote access,” but he is fundamentally a tech optimist and believes that AI and automation will make lawyers better at their jobs. “An explosion of information makes lawyers more necessary, because lawyers have been trained for years how to parse information,” says Professor Williams, who notes that, as with the rise of the internet, the lawyers who are prepared to adapt are the ones who will thrive. Which is why he was eager to join California Western, where the Law, Justice, and Technology Initiative is being built to prepare students for the new market they are entering. “I want all my students to be able to thrive in that ecosystem,” says Professor Williams. “I want them to know how to use these new tools effectively and to advocate in situations where they can be harmful.”  

Two months into his first semester teaching at California Western, Professor Williams is unequivocal about how it’s going: “I absolutely love it.” Speaking like a Southern California native, he is grateful to be back home in San Diego, where he grew up and where his family and his partner’s family still live. He treasures his colleagues “who make it very easy to come to work.” And, ever the teacher, Professor Williams cherishes his students—eager, ambitious, and ready to have their minds changed. “I’m very much in the right place.” 

 
Off Campus with Professor Spencer Williams 

What are you reading for fun? I’m finishing Stephen King’s magnum opus The Dark Tower series.  

What are you watching? The Boys, on Amazon. It’s an interesting take on the superhero trope. It looks at the dark and dirty underbelly of superheroes and how we treat celebrities in our culture. It’s also really funny.  

What are you enjoying most in San Diego? Family. Having been away for so many years, getting to be an active part of my family again—it’s unrivaled.