Technology Law & Policy Clinic Celebrates Students’ Pro Bono Work

NYU Law’s clinics provide students with unique real-world experiences in the practice of law. Clients receive pro bono legal help from NYU Law students, who work under the supervision of licensed faculty. In our clinics, students solve urgent legal and social problems, shape law and policy at every level—from local to international—and build their own skills and expertise.

NYU’s Technology Law & Policy (TLP) Clinic is specifically dedicated to public interest legal work at the intersection of law and technology. Founded in 2012 by Clinic Director (and Engelberg Center Co-Director) Jason Schultz, the TLP Clinic works on intellectual property, open innovation, government surveillance and digital privacy, access to information, free speech online, health technology and health justice, digital media and culture, and much more. In this work, the TLP Clinic represents individuals, nonprofits, activist and consumer groups, and other clients who would otherwise lack legal representation and who are themselves committed to the public interest. Along with Professor Schultz, the clinic is co-taught by Deputy Director Chris Morten and Professor Brett Max Kaufman, a senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s Center for Democracy. (In July, Chris will depart NYU to start a new Science, Health, and Information (SHI) Clinic at Columbia Law School.)

Much of the TLP Clinic’s work for clients is not public, but some is. Clinic students’ past work has been cited or profiled by The Washington Post, The Financial Times, NYU News, and other media.

In the next two weeks, the Engelberg Center will publish a series of short posts highlighting seven recent projects of the TLP Clinic and its clients. The featured projects span diverse fields of law and technology and showcase the breadth of the Clinic’s approach, encompassing counseling and licensing projects, amicus briefs, comments submitted to Congress and to a federal agency, and a Freedom of Information Act-based investigation.

1. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Supports ml5.js in Developing a New Ethical Open Source Software License and Code of Conduct for Machine Learning
2. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Partners with ACLU on Amicus Brief That Maps the Limits of Law Enforcement’s Ability To Search Digital Devices
3. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Partners with ACLU on Amicus Brief Against Long-Term Police “Pole Camera” Surveillance
4. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Helps the Internet Archive Answer Congressional Questions on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
5. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Students Represent iFixit To File Comment with Copyright Office and Protect the Public’s Right To Repair
6. Food and Drug Administration Takes First-Ever Enforcement Action To Ensure Clinical Trial Transparency, Following NYU Technology Law & Policy Clinic’s Work with Universities Allied for Essential Medicines (UAEM)
7. Technology Law & Policy Clinic Student Attorneys Assist the Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA) on Intellectual Property Matters