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Greetings, and welcome to the third issue of LST@Stanford.
The Stanford Law School Program in Law, Science & Technology has
had a wonderfully busy and productive year. Under the terrific leadership
of Director Margaret Jane Radin and Executive Director Roland Vogl, and
the good advice of Advisory Council chair Gordy Davidson of Fenwick &
West, the Program has already more than fulfilled my dream that we could
bring together speakers and conference participants from a wide range of
academic, legal, business and government backgrounds to discuss
cutting-edge developments at the intersection of law and technology.
This academic year is now drawing to a close, but the upcoming year
promises to be even more fruitful in terms of the quality and the number
of conferences, speakers, and other events that the LST Program will
sponsor.
I am delighted to announce that Professor Mark Lemley, one of the
nation’s top intellectual property scholars and a leading scholar of
patent and Internet law as well, has joined our stellar Law, Science and
Technology faculty at Stanford Law School, and has just moved across the
Bay to us from his previous post the University of California at
Berkeley. We are also thrilled to announce that he has accepted our
invitation to serve as the new director of the LST Program, starting this
summer. My colleague Peggy Radin has done an absolutely outstanding job
as LST Director over the last several years, and Mark will be lucky to
build upon her great legacy. Under his leadership, our LST Program will
continue to build its already preeminent role as a center for
intellectual exchange in the quickly growing field of law, science and
technology.
One of the highlights of the past year was the launch of the Center
for Law and the Biosciences (CLB) last February. The conference
“Unnatural Selection: Should California Regulate Pre-Implantation Genetic
Diagnosis?” that marked the launch was a tremendous success and drew a
large audience interested in the questions raised by new extensions of in
vitro fertilization. Under the thoughtful direction of Professor Henry T.
(“Hank”) Greely, the CLB has very quickly emerged as a central forum for
discussion of how new discoveries in the biosciences challenge our legal
system and ethical beliefs. The CLB has also been working closely with
the student group BioLaw to organize other events and conferences.
Together, these two groups will certainly play a major role in examining
new biotechnological discoveries, determining how such discoveries may
change our society, and providing an informed debate about how the law
should approach these changes.
In March, Professor Lawrence Lessig released his blockbuster new book
entitled Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock
Down Culture and Control Creativity. The book’s website, which includes
notes, reviews, free content, and even a number of ‘remixes’ into various
internet formats, is located at http://www.free-culture.cc. LST held a
festive book-signing and presentation by Larry on April 13, and Larry got
to dazzle us with his proficiency in using all the new technology in the
newly renovated faculty lounge. The book draws on the work that he has
done as the Founder and Director of LST’s Center for Internet and Society
(CIS). This year CIS, in partnership with the LST Program, sponsored two
stellar conferences on the topics of Internet security and privacy.
“Securing Privacy in the Internet Age” and “Cybersecurity, Research and
Disclosure” both brought hundreds of computer security researchers, legal
experts, policy makers, and corporate professionals to campus.
The Center for E-Commerce, led by Professor Margaret Jane Radin and
Executive Director Ian C. Ballon, a partner specializing in intellectual
property and the Internet at the law firm of Manatt, Phelps &
Phillips LLP, continues to spearhead exploration of those critical grey
areas of the law pertaining to online business activity. Together with
the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Corporate
Counsel (ACC), the Center will host an event this June 25 entitled
“Stanford E-commerce Best Practices Conference – How to Deal with the
Uncertainties of Online Business.” The goal of this conference is to find
practical solutions by bringing together the Silicon Valley legal and
business communities with other professionals from around the globe to
share their ideas and strategies for dealing with the legal uncertainties
that arise when doing business online.
It has been my great privilege to get to know several of the students
who are currently working towards a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in Law,
Science & Technology. These students who come to Stanford Law School
from around to world to focus for one academic year on the study of
cutting edge issues in law, science and technology, truly represent the
future of the legal profession: global players conversant in technology
and the intricacies of different legal regimes. They are true ambassadors
of Stanford Law School and it will be exciting to track their progress in
the years after they receive their degrees.
All of the centers within this program are flourishing and will
undoubtedly leave a mark on the way we think about law and technology.
Our initial vision for the LST Program was of a program that would help
legal professionals, businesspeople, government officials, and the public
at large to identify new questions raised by scientific and technological
development. This vision has paid off beyond any of our expectations.
During 2004 in particular, we have succeeded not just in identifying the
challenges that exist at the interface of law, science, and technology,
but in beginning to propose bold and innovative solutions to these challenges.
We are aided greatly in our efforts by the support of the founding
affiliates of our LST program. This spring we received commitments from
Affymetrix, Cooley Godward LLP, Fenwick & West LLP, Heller Ehrman
White & McAuliffe LLP, Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP, Paul,
Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP, Pillsbury Winthrop LLP, and Wilson,
Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati to become our partners in all the exciting
enterprises described above. This annual program support places LST on a
much stronger footing to carry on its exciting work, and our affiliates
will be a source of great ideas and people to fuel our events as well!
Thank you very much for taking the time to read this newsletter, and
for supporting the Stanford Law School Program in Law, Science &
Technology.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Sullivan
Dean and Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Stanley Morrison
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
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