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Professor Jennifer Urban, UC Berkeley Law
Clinical Professor of Law
Director, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
Co-Director, Berkeley Center for Law & Technology
Berkeley Center for Law & Technology: Chair, Privacy Protection Agency Board
Jennifer M. Urban was appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in March 2021 to be the inaugural Chair of the California Privacy Protection Agency Board. Urban is a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she is Director of Policy Initiatives at the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, she founded and directed the USC Intellectual Property & Technology Law Clinic at the University of Southern California, Gould School of Law. Before that, she was the Samuelson Clinic’s first fellow and an attorney with the Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley. She holds a B.A. in biological science (concentration in neurobiology and behavior) from Cornell University and a J.D. (with law and technology certificate) from Berkeley Law.
Professor Urban’s research considers how values such as free expression, freedom to innovate, and privacy are mediated by technology, the laws that govern technology, and private-ordering systems. Many of her recent papers are available on the Social Science Research Network.
Professor Urban's clinic students represent clients in numerous public interest cases and projects at the intersection of technological change and societal interests such as civil liberties, innovation, and creative expression. Recent clinic projects include work on individual privacy rights, copyright and free expression, artists’ rights, digital libraries, free and open source licensing, government surveillance, the “smart” electricity grid, biometrics, and defensive patent licensing.