Curriculum in Law and Technology

This course focuses on teaching students the business principles that underlie the formation of a startup. Students will learn by doing: lean startup methods will be studied and then used to develop and build a legal tech startup.

This course will teach problem-solving for complex issues, using legal research, design-thinking and other inter-disciplinary techniques to address the challenges faced by much of the Homeless Population in San Francisco.

The Startup Legal Garage provides startups with legal resources, free of charge. The program provides students with hands-on experience working directly with startups and attorneys serving the startup community.

Transformative technologies will continue to reshape how we live, work, learn, and play. In this course we will study how the law has evolved around new technologies. In particular, we'll explore the present and future impacts of automated driving systems, 3D printing, transportation network platforms, commercial drones, and blockchain. We will also challenge ourselves to think creatively about how regulatory landscapes should be built.

Privacy laws in California are constantly evolving and leading the United States and other countries. This course will provide students with an introduction to key aspects of U.S. federal and California privacy law and an opportunity to work on exploring this interesting field. Sessions consist of a lecture-style presentation of about 30 minutes, followed by interactive discussion of practical and policy implications and research assignments.

The recent expansion of electronic discovery in civil litigation raises a host of practical, technical and ethical issues for both lawyers and clients. The volume of potentially discoverable electronically stored information (ESI) is growing exponentially. Much of that ESI is stored on widely dispersed, unconnected, outdated or downright inaccessible systems. As a number of recent, high profile cases illustrate, the stakes for both lawyers and clients are high. This course covers up-to-date developments in the doctrines governing e-discovery, as well as the practical, technical and ethical issues discussed above.

This seminar will survey key legal issues in Internet law, including intellectual property ("Who owns your MySpace?"), electronic commerce ("Is a click a contract?"), content regulation ("What if a kid sees that?"), privacy and anonymity ("Who can tell I'm reading Perez Hilton?"), unauthorized access ("When is hacking a crime?"), and Internet governance ("Who's in charge here?"). Readings will focus on the latest developments in each of these areas. No technical background is required; supplementary readings will be available for those without basic knowledge of Internet technology and intellectual property law.

This colloquium offers students the opportunity to hear from and interact with experts in the fields of national security law, cyberlaw, and social media regulation, while providing a forum for students to produce papers based on their individual research interests within these fields. The colloquium will cover topics related to Russian election interference, cross-border regulation of speech and data, and international law in cyberspace.

This course will focus on the role of venture capital in the organization and development of the startup technology company, with emphasis on both the legal and business perspectives of this subject. The course will feature a number of guest speakers to share their experience from a real world perspective, including venture capitalists from Silicon Valley-based venture capital funds, executives from existing venture-backed technology companies, attorneys from local law firms that concentrate in the technology area, and others