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Summer Fellowship Opportunities with the BU/MIT Law Clinics
Info Session Link: https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/92686598729?pwd=SFh3VjhianBzTXFqUDVjVThXS09qUT09
We’re Hiring! Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor
The Technology Law Clinic seeking an attorney with technology law experience to join us for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 Academic Years as a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor! Full job description and application instructions are here, and applications received on or before January 31, 2021 will be given full consideration.
Boston University School of Law believes that the cultural and social diversity of our faculty, staff, and students is vitally important to the distinction and excellence of our academic programs. To that end, we are especially eager to hear from applicants who support our institutional commitment to BU as an inclusive, equitable, and diverse community.
The attorney’s primary responsibility will be to supervise and assist students with direct client representation matters. The attorney will also assist the Clinic Director and Assistant Director in preparing and teaching a year-long seminar for students enrolled in the Clinic, including developing materials, performing research, and coordinating classroom activities and guest presentations. The position is a year-round position and the attorney also would work with student fellows hired to continue the work of the clinic during the summer. As time allows, the attorney would also work with the Clinic Director and Assistant Director to develop generalized legal resources and informational material to inform MIT and BU students on the legal aspects of their innovative projects and ventures.
The ideal candidate is a member of the Massachusetts bar or is eligible for membership, with at least one to three years of experience advising clients on cutting-edge issues in technology law, and a willingness to support the work of creative and innovative young clients. Experience with legal issues related to research and development of new technologies is considered a plus. Teaching experience or a strong interest in developing as a clinical faculty member is also considered a plus. Exceptional writing, editing, organizational, and managerial skills are required.
Summer in Review: Renewed Partnerships and Team Updates
The Technology Law Clinic has had a busy and exciting summer. Though campuses have gone quiet, operations have moved online and the Clinic is still open for business and representing MIT and BU students in their ventures on matters related to their technology-related research, advocacy, and innovation.
Five More Years
Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have renewed their partnership, solidifying the work of the Technology and Startup Law Clinics through 2025. Read more about this powerful partnership and the work that we’ve accomplished here.
New Team Members
Jocelyn Hanamirian has joined the team as the Assistant Director of the Technology Law Clinic. Prof. Hanamirian joins the clinic from the Walt Disney Company where she was Associate Principal Counsel. At the Walt Disney Company, Hanamirian worked in the Intellectual Property legal department, counseling Walt Disney Imagineering and other internal clients on copyright, trademark, right of publicity, and matters of freedom of expression. Hanamirian holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Law and the Arts, and an A.B. from Princeton University. She currently serves as vice-chair of the International Trademark Association’s Famous & Well-Known Marks U.S. Subcommittee.
Also new to the BU / MIT Clinics is Bridget Donovan, who serves as the team’s Senior Program Coordinator. Bridget joined Boston University School of Law from MENTOR, where she served as Corporate Engagement Project Manager. Bridget holds a B.A. from Smith College.
Please join us in welcoming them to the team!
We’re Hiring an Assistant Director!
We are excited to announce that BU Law is hiring a Lecturer and Clinical Instructor to serve as the first Assistant Director of the BU/MIT Technology Law Clinic! Applications received on or before April 10, 2020 will be given full consideration.
The Clinic is part of a unique collaboration between BU Law and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is part of BU Law’s Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Cyberlaw Program. BU Law believes that the cultural and social diversity of our faculty, staff, and students is vitally important to the distinction and excellence of our academic programs. To that end, we are especially eager to hear from applicants who support our institutional commitment to BU as an inclusive, equitable, and diverse community.
The Clinic represents current students at MIT and BU on matters related to their technology-related research, advocacy, and innovation. The Clinic frequently advises clients in the areas of data privacy, intellectual property, computer access laws, media law, and technology regulatory compliance. Clinic faculty help law students assist clients in counseling, pre-litigation, and transactional settings, and possibly also in litigation matters, including response to cease-and-desist letters and litigation under open records laws. Clients often present novel questions of law in emerging areas of technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, encryption and cryptography, and novel methods of online platform scrutiny and analysis.
The Assistant Director will assist and advise the Clinic Director in all aspects of the operation and development of the program. Their primary responsibilities will be to supervise and train law students with client matters, teach and develop curricular materials for the Clinic’s year-long seminar, and assist the Clinic Director in the strategic growth and development of the Clinic.
See our job posting for full details and application instructions.
Summer Job Opportunities at the BU/MIT Law Clinics!
We are happy to announce that the two BU/MIT Law Clinic are now receiving applications from current BU Law 1Ls and 2Ls to participate in our summer program. We'll be hosting an information session on Thursday, January 16 at 1pm in Room 101 to discuss these opportunities.
The deadline to apply is Tuesday, January 21, at 4pm, via Symplicity (see below for more information).
About the Clinics
Both clinics work with graduate and undergraduate students at MIT and BU with their legal issues, under the supervision and teaching of BU Law faculty. The two clinics handle similar but distinct legal issues:
- The Technology Law Clinic works with technology-focused student researchers, advocates, and entrepreneurs on the legal and regulatory issues that the students encounter as they do their work. This includes work in data privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and media/First Amendment law. Law students will counsel clients, respond to legal threats, and, from time to time, represent the students in negotiation or litigation related to their academic or innovative work.
- The Startup Law Clinic addresses the transactional and corporate needs of student-led startups, including counseling on entity formation, intellectual property licensing and registration, and equity and investment issues. Students counsel clients through the entire life-cycle of a startup, including representing clients in negotiation and drafting contracts and other documents where appropriate.
Students work 35 hours per week for 10 weeks over the summer.
The Matthew Z. Gomes Fellowship
We are honored to announce that thanks to a generous contribution by Antonio Gomes (BUSL '96), both the Technology Law Clinic and the Startup Law Clinic will be hiring two students each as our third class of Matthew Z. Gomes Fellows, along with our other summer fellows.
The Mathew Z. Gomes Fellowship, established in memory of Mr. Gomes’s son, is specifically open to students who:
- have demonstrated experience in or commitment to working with historically underserved or underprivileged populations;
- are the first generation in one’s family to attend law school;
- are socioeconomically disadvantaged; and/or
- have overcome substantial educational or economic obstacles or personal adversity.
Qualifying students are encouraged to apply for the Gomes Fellowship.
How to Apply
Current BU Law 1Ls and 2Ls students are encouraged to apply. Applicants should submit a cover letter, resume, and transcript via Symplicity by Tuesday, January 21, at 4pm. If applying for the Matthew Z. Gomes Fellowship, the cover letter should address the student's specific qualifications under that fellowship.
Using the BU Law Symplicity portal you can find the listings at:
- Matthew Z. Gomes Fellow, Technology Law Clinic – listing 34380
- Summer Fellow, Technology Law Clinic – listing 34378
- Matthew Z. Gomes Fellow, Startup Law Clinic – listing 34379
- Summer Fellow, Startup Law Clinic – listing 34376
Please contact TLC Director Andy Sellars or SLC Director Jim Wheaton if you have questions about these opportunities.
IAP 2020, Law & Technology: Know Your Rights
We're excited to announce the fourth edition of our annual MIT IAP class, Law & Technology: Know Your Rights. In a week-long series of lunch talks, we will review current events and hot topics in technology law, and how they affect student research, activism, and startups. We'll also have special guest speakers!
Please see our IAP page for more details and to RSVP. We hope to see you there!
Welcome our new Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor, Tiffany Li!
We are a week away from the start of our new academic year here at the Technology Law Clinic, and we are delighted to announce that Tiffany Li will be joining the BU/MIT Technology Law Clinic this year as a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor!
Prof. Li's work focuses on privacy, artificial intelligence, and tech platform governance. Li’s writing has appeared in popular publications including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, NBC News, and Slate. Li is also an Affiliate Fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project and has held past affiliations with Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and UC Berkeley's Center for Technology, Society and Policy. Her legal experience includes roles at the Wikimedia Foundation, General Assembly, and Ask.com. She also holds CIPP/US, CIPP/E, CIPT, and CIPM certifications from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Li received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Global Law Scholar, and a B.A. in English from University of California Los Angeles.
Please join us in welcoming Prof. Li to the Technology Law Clinic!
The clinic is hiring a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor!
The Technology Law Clinic seeking an attorney with technology law experience to join us for the 2019–20 Academic Year as a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor! The professor will supervise and assist the students in the Technology Law Clinic as they work with our clients on matters of data privacy, intellectual property, and cybersecurity. The professor will also work with the Clinic Director in scholarly research, curricular and program development, and as time allows, to develop generalized legal resources for the MIT and BU student communities. Ideal candidates are attorneys admitted or eligible for admission in Massachusetts, with at least 1–3 years of experience representing clients on cutting-edge issues in technology law, especially in the area of data privacy compliance.
The full job description is here. Applications received before August 9 will be given full consideration.
SCOTUS: Confidential Sale of Invention Triggers 1-Year Deadline for Patent Application
(We are delighted to host this client alert written by Kristen Elia, a student in our companion clinic, the Startup Law Clinic.)
Attention all aspiring inventors! Your patent applications could be rejected as a result of prior confidential sales of your patentable invention, as re-emphasized in a recent Supreme Court ruling. In brief:
- The on-sale patent bar prohibits the issuance of a patent to an inventor where the invention was sold more than a year prior to the filing of a patent application for the invention.
- On January 22, 2019 in Helsinn Healthcare S.A. v. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc., the Supreme Court affirmed that even “secret sales”, in which the invention is required to be kept confidential, trigger the on-sale patent bar.
- The fact that the patent bar is triggered by confidential sales is not new law. However, this Supreme Court ruling confirms the scope of the on-sale bar in the wake of ambiguous language in the America Invents Act, a 2013 update to the federal patent statute.
- Inventors should consult a patent attorney before commencing sales of their inventions or executing manufacturing, development, or other similar commercialization agreements, as language in those agreements that is unnecessarily broad could potentially trigger the on-sale bar.
Thursday (3/28/19) Talk at BU: Pressing Legal Issues for Blockchain Technology
Please join us at the BUild Lab at 12pm on Thursday, March 28 to learn about the legal issues that arise in applications of blockchain technologies, including information on cryptocurrencies, exchanges, and smart contracts.
This presentation, by TLC student Zachary Sisko, will cover the following topics:
- The practical and legal differences between cryptocurrencies and tokens
- Government responses to crypto exchanges and markets
- The enforceability and structure of smart contracts
- Data security practices (and failures) relating to blockchain technology
Thursday, March 28, 2019
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
BUild Lab
730 Commonwealth Ave
Brookline, MA
Enter at red awning next to Pavement Coffee