Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property Law Conference Speakers

Matthew Ferraro serves as the Senior Counselor for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technology to the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence Safety and Security Board. In this role, Mr. Ferraro advises the Secretary on the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies to fulfill the Department’s mission and on AI policymaking across the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and throughout the U.S. Government. Prior to his service at DHS, Mr. Ferraro practiced law at the intersection of national security, cybersecurity, technology, and crisis management at the international law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP. While there, he helped to build the firm’s AI practice. Before entering the legal profession, Mr. Ferraro served as a U.S. intelligence officer, holding a variety of staff, policy, and operational positions with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. An Adjunct Professor of Law and Senior Fellow at the National Security Institute at George Mason University, he has written widely on issues related to national security, technology, and law. Educated at Yale, Cambridge, and Stanford, Mr. Ferraro lives and works in Washington, D.C.

Jeff Behrends is a Senior Research Scholar and Associate Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University. A specialist in both ethical theory and the applied ethics of computing technology, his work has not only been published in the traditional venues of academic philosophy, but also featured at events hosted by the Mozilla Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering, the Texas Department of Transportation, and other sites where theoretical and practical expertise meet. For several years he co-directed Embedded EthiCS @ Harvard, a program that embeds and distributes ethics education throughout the Computer Science curriculum and that has served as an international model for similar pedagogical programs. He is the former Director of Ethics and Technology Initiatives at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics.

Nicole Clouse is a seasoned IP attorney with a specialized focus in the biotech and pharma industry.  Currently serving as Vice President, Head of Intellectual Property at Generate Biomedicines, Nicole leads the protection of the company’s IP assets and provides strategic legal guidance to advance its pioneering work in the field of generative biology.  Using its proprietary generative AI/ML platform, Generate Biomedicines is developing a robust pipeline of novel protein therapeutics, two of which are currently in human clinical trials.

Previously, Nicole was IP Counsel at Biogen, where she supported clinical stage and marketed programs with respect to IP strategy, transactions, and patent litigation. Before moving in-house, she was in private legal practice for nearly 15 years, most recently as a partner in the IP Litigation group at McDermott Will & Emery and, before that, and as a Patent Agent at Choate Hall & Stewart. She has a JD from Boston University School of Law and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Princeton University. She is an active member of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) committee on Artificial Intelligence, Data & New Emerging Technologies.

John Palfrey is the President of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Palfrey is a well-respected educator, author, legal scholar, and innovator with expertise in how new media is changing learning and education. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as Head of School at Phillips Academy, Andover. Palfrey is the board chair of the United States Impact Investing Alliance and serves on the board of the Fidelity Non-Profit Management Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and serves on the governance council. He is the former board chair of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Palfrey holds a JD from Harvard Law School, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and an AB from Harvard College. Palfrey is an accomplished author; his most recent book is Safe Spaces, Brave Spaces: Diversity and Free Expression in Education. A revised and expanded version of his book Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age, which he co-authored with Urs Gasser, was issued in 2016.

Steve Satterfield is a vice president on Meta’s legal team. He leads Meta’s AI legal team, which includes product and privacy counsel that support product development and research at the company. Steve’s team also includes the regional privacy teams for the U.S., LATAM, APAC and MEA as well as Meta’s global legal incident management team. Steve previously led the team within Meta’s Public Policy organization that is responsible for advocacy on proposed data regulation; before that, he led the team in Policy that supports Meta’s Monetization product organization.

Before coming to Meta, Steve was a privacy lawyer at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C., where he represented leading technology and media companies. He is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Brown University and The George Washington University Law School.

Erin Sheppard is Deputy General Counsel at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she leads Booz Allen’s Sector Operations Legal team, which is comprised of the sector counsels across all three of the firm’s sectors (Defense, Civil, and National Security), as well as the Government Contracts, Intellectual Property, International, Employment Data Privacy and Security, and Investigations legal practice areas teams. She and her broader legal team help the firm’s business leaders across the defense, intelligence, and civil sectors navigate the full lifecycle of government contract performance and respond to the evolving legislative and regulatory landscape.

Before joining Booz Allen, Erin worked in private practice for nearly 10 years. Most recently, she was a partner at Dentons U.S. LLP, advising clients on contractual disputes, litigation, internal and government investigations, and government contract compliance issues. The National Law Journal named Erin a cybersecurity trailblazer in October 2016.

Erin earned a J.D. from Duke University School of Law and a master’s in public policy from Duke University’s Terry Sanford School of Public Policy. She also has a B.A. in English and political science from Kenyon College.

Iain Cunningham is a vice president and deputy general counsel at NVIDIA where he is responsible for intellectual property, AI governance, and data privacy. Before joining NVIDIA, Mr. Cunningham practiced as a patent litigator, managed a chunk of the global smartphone patent wars, and founded a software company focused on legal billing analytics.

Mr. Cunningham attended UCLA for Cognitive Science, graduate school at UC Irvine for Artificial Intelligence, and earned a law degree from UC Law, San Francisco.

Greg Leppert is the Chief Technologist of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. He is also the Executive Director of the Institutional Data Initiative, a research center working to refine and publish library, academic, and government collections as public datasets for AI training. Before academia, Greg built startups in NYC and Austin as an engineer and designer. Before startups, he toured the U.S. and Canada in post-rock bands and set type at Hatch Show Print. Greg is a strong believer that most people want to do good in the world and are simply looking for the right way to go about it.

Matthew Sag is a Professor of Law in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Data Science at Emory University Law School. Professor Sag is a leading U.S. authority on the fair use doctrine in copyright law and its implications for researchers in the fields of text data mining, machine learning, and AI.

Professor Sag was born and educated in Australia. He earned honors in Law at the Australian National University and clerked for Justice Paul Finn at the Australian Federal Court. Professor Sag practiced law in London as an associate at Arnold & Porter, and in Silicon Valley with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In July 2023, he testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Intellectual Property in relation to copyright and Generative AI.

Sushupta Sudarshan is the Assistant General Counsel for Intellectual Property, Technology and Information Law at Northrop Grumman in Falls Church, VA.  In this role, Sushupta leads Northrop Grumman’s IP, cyber and privacy law practices where she and her team handle government contracts, commercial agreements, technology collaborations, IP licensing, information protection, IP portfolio, and government regulatory and acquisition policy.  Sushupta advises company leaders on rapidly evolving areas including AI, data, and software strategy.

Before joining Northrop Grumman, Sushupta was an IP attorney at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, OH where she supported GE’s military and commercial aircraft engines and additive manufacturing businesses.  Before going in-house, Sushupta was in private practice in Washington, D.C.

Sushupta earned her J.D. from The George Washington University Law School, and her B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of South Carolina.

Rebecca Tushnet is the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School. She clerked for Associate Justice David H. Souter and previously taught at NYU and Georgetown. Her work focuses on copyright, trademark, and advertising law. With Eric Goldman, she publishes a casebook on advertising and marketing law, and joined Jane Ginsburg, Jessica Litman, and Mary Kevlin’s trademark casebook. She helped found the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting and promoting fanworks. Her blog, tushnet.blogspot.com, is one of the top intellectual property blogs, and her writings may be found at tushnet.com. She is also an expert on the law of engagement rings.

William Fisher received his undergraduate degree (in American Studies) from Amherst College and his graduate degrees (J.D. and Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization) from Harvard University. Between 1982 and 1984, he served as a law clerk, first to Judge Harry T. Edwards of the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and then to Justice Thurgood Marshall of the US Supreme Court.  Since 1984, he has taught at Harvard Law School, where he is now the Wilmer Hale Professor of Intellectual Property Law.  In 2013, he created the CopyrightX online course, which is now offered annually to approximately 1000 students worldwide.  In 2021 he and Professor Ruth Okediji created a similar course on Patent Law and Global Public Health, which is now offered semiannually in collaboration with the World Intellectual Property Organization.  He is currently the director of Global Access in Action, a non-profit organization, based at Harvard Law School, whose primary mission is improving public health in low and middle-income countries.

Sir Robert Buckland has enjoyed a distinguished career in politics and law in the United Kingdom. He is a practising barrister at Foundry Chambers in London, is Senior Counsel at Payne Hicks Beach Solicitors and is a member of the Policy Unit at DAC Beachcroft solicitors. For 2023 and 2024, Robert is a Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business & Government at Harvard Kennedy School and is researching the impact of AI and machine learning on the ethics of the administration of justice.

Robert was first elected to the House of Commons in 2010, and in 2014, Robert joined the UK Government as Solicitor General. In May 2019, Robert became Minister of State for Prisons & Probation and in July 2019, he entered the Cabinet as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, serving until September 2021. In July 2022, Robert returned to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales and served until October 2022.

Born in Llanelli, Wales in 1968, Robert graduated in Law at Hatfield College, Durham University in 1990. At Durham he was President of the Union and Secretary of Hatfield Junior Common Room. Robert was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1991 and was an advocacy prize winner. He then spent nearly twenty years in practice, specialising in criminal litigation. He was a member of the Attorney-General’s List of Prosecuting Counsel from 1999 to 2010. In 2009, Robert was appointed as a part-time Crown Court Circuit Judge, serving until his appointment to Government.

In the Commons, Robert served on the Justice Select Committee, the Standards Committee and the Joint Committee on Human Rights, and was elected Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee in 2023. Robert was Secretary of the 1922 Committee of Conservative Backbenchers from 2012 to 2014 and chaired the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. As a backbencher, Robert chaired a number of All Party Groups and campaigned on issues such as autism, special educational needs and reform of the laws of domestic abuse and stalking.

Sir Robert is a Master of the Bench at Inner Temple and was awarded the KBE in the 2022 New Year Honours.

Ruth L. Okediji is the Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, Director of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and Director of the Law School’s Center for the Study of African Societies and Economies (CSASE). Professor Okediji teaches contracts, international intellectual property (IP), patents, copyright, Biblical Law, and courses on Artificial Intelligence. She advises governments, firms, and international organizations on matters related to the digital economy, innovation policy, legal ethics, and human flourishing. She has authored articles, commissioned papers, and book chapters on these topics.

Professor Okediji was a member of the United Nations High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines and served as lead expert and negotiator for the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works (2013) and for the WIPO Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (2024). She was a member of the U.S. National Academies Board on Science, Technology and Policy Committee on the Impact of Copyright Policy on Innovation in the Digital Era. In 2021, she completed service as Co-Chair of the National Academies Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy Committee on Advancing Commercialization from the Federal Laboratories.

Over the course of her career, Professor Okediji has received many awards and distinctions for teaching, advising, and mentoring. These include “Professor Most Likely to Go Beyond the Call of Duty,” the Student Bar Association’s “Outstanding Professor Award,” and at Harvard, she is a two-time recipient of the Harvard Law School’s Women’s Law Association “Shatter the Ceiling” Award.

Professor Okediji serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of World Intellectual Property Law and the Journal of International Economic Law. She is the immediate past- President of the Order of the Coif, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and an appointed member of the American Bar Association’s Taskforce on Artificial Intelligence and the Law. An alumnus of the University of Jos and Harvard Law School, Professor Okediji is a 2023 recipient of the Barry Prize for distinguished intellectual achievement by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Eleonora Rosati is Full Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Stockholm University and Of Counsel at Bird & Bird. She holds guest/visiting positions at several other institutions, including Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Queen Mary University of London, KDI School of Public Policy and Management, CEIPI-Université de Strasbourg, EDHEC Business School, and Glion Institute of Higher Education.

Eleonora is Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice (Oxford University Press), long-standing contributor to and editor of award-winning IP blog The IPKat, and Co-Founder of Fashion Law London. The author of several scholarly articles and books on IP issues, including—most recently—Copyright and the Court of Justice of the European Union (Oxford University Press:2023, 2nd edn) and Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Article-by-Article Commentary to the Provisions of Directive 2019/790(Oxford University Press:2021), Eleonora regularly prepares technical briefings and expert opinions and delivers talks at the request of inter alia international organizations and EU institutions and agencies, as well as national governments and professional bodies and organizations.

She has received multiple accolades and prizes for her work in the IP field and has been featured in prominent media outlets, including inter alia The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, CNN, BBC, and Politico.

Rachel Sachs is a Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. She is a scholar of innovation policy, exploring the intersection of health law, food and drug regulation, and patent law. Her work analyzes problems of innovation and access to new health care technologies. Professor Sachs’ scholarship has appeared in journals that include the Duke Law Journal, the NYU Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Law Review, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs.

Professor Sachs recently served in the Biden-Harris Administration as a Senior Advisor at the Department of Health and Human Services Office of the General Counsel, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Division. She has testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and the United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways & Means. She currently serves as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Prior to joining Washington University in St. Louis, Professor Sachs was an Academic Fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and a Lecturer in Law at Harvard Law School. She also clerked for the Honorable Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. She received her J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She received her A.B. in Bioethics from Princeton University.

Solicitor General of the United States from 1997 to 2001, Seth Waxman is a partner at WilmerHale and a member of the faculty at the Georgetown University Law Center. A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale Law School, Mr. Waxman represents clients in civil and criminal litigation, at the trial and appellate stages, in both federal and state courts. He has argued 88 cases in the United States Supreme Court and hundreds in state and lower federal courts.

Mr. Waxman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Academy of Appellate Attorneys, and he serves on the Council of the American Law Institute. He writes and lectures on constitutional law and history, civil rights, intellectual property, and advocacy. Mr. Waxman has received numerous awards for scholarship, public service, and advocacy, including the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Law, and the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico award. On account of extraordinary service to law enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has installed him as a permanent honorary Special Agent.

Kimberly A. Moore was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and assumed the duties of Chief Circuit Judge on May 22, 2021. Prior to her appointment, Chief Judge Moore was a Professor of Law from 2004 to 2006 and Associate Professor of Law from 2000 to 2004 at the George Mason University School of Law. She was an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Maryland School of Law from 1999 to 2000. She served both as an Assistant Professor of Law from 1997 to 1999 and the Associate Director of the Intellectual Property Law Program from 1998 to 1999 at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Chief Judge Moore clerked from 1995 to 1997 for the Honorable Glenn L. Archer, Jr., Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. She was an Associate at Kirkland & Ellis from 1994 to 1995. From 1988 to 1992, Chief Judge Moore was employed in electrical engineering with the Naval Surface Warfare Center. Chief Judge Moore received her B.S.E.E. in 1990, M.S. in 1991, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her J.D., cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1994. Chief Judge Moore has written and presented widely on patent litigation. She co-authored a legal casebook entitled Patent Litigation and Strategy and served as the Editor of The Federal Circuit Bar Journal from 1998 to 2006.

Sharon Prost was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001. Judge Prost served as Chief Circuit Judge from May 31, 2014 to May 21, 2021. Prior to her appointment, Judge Prost served as Minority Chief Counsel, Deputy Chief Counsel, and Chief Counsel of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate from 1993 to 2001. She also served as Chief Labor Counsel (Minority), Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources from 1989 to 1993. Prior to her work on Capitol Hill, she served for fifteen years in five different agencies of the executive branch. These agencies included the Department of Treasury, National Labor Relations Board, and General Accounting Office. Judge Prost received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1973, an M.B.A. from The George Washington University in 1975, a J.D. from the Washington College of Law, American University in 1979, and an LL.M. in tax law from The George Washington University School of Law in 1984.

Circuit Judge Alan D. Lourie was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 6, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush.  He was formerly Vice President, Corporate Patents and Trademarks, and Associate General Counsel of SmithKline Beecham Corporation.

Before being appointed to the court, Judge Lourie had been President of the Philadelphia Patent Law Association, a member of the Board of Directors of the American Intellectual Property Law Association (formerly American Patent Law Association), treasurer of the Association of Corporate Patent Counsel, and a member of the board of directors of the Intellectual Property Owners Association.  He was also Vice Chairman of the Industry Functional Advisory Committee on Intellectual Property Rights for Trade Policy Matters (IFAC 3) for the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.  He was a member of the U.S. delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, held in Geneva in October and November 1982, and in March 1984.  He was chairman of the Patent Committee of the Law Section of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association from 1980 to 1985.

Since joining the court, Judge Lourie has received a number of awards from bar associations and others, including the New Jersey Intellectual Property Law Association, the Intellectual Property Owners, the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association, the Boston Patent Law Association, the Sedona Conference, the New York Intellectual Property Law Association, and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.  He has also received the Professionalism Award of the American Inns of Court Foundation and has been honored by having the Boston Intellectual Property American Inn of Court rename itself to be the Alan D. Lourie Boston Intellectual Property American Inn of Court. He was a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure from 1990 to 1998 and was a member of the Committee on Codes of Conduct from 2005 to 2013.

Todd M. Hughes was appointed by President Barack H. Obama in 2013.  Judge Hughes served as Deputy Director of the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2007 to 2013.  He was the Assistant Director in that office from 1999 to 2007 and a Trial Attorney from 1994 to 1999.  From 1992 to 1994, Judge Hughes clerked for Circuit Judge Robert Krupansky of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  He was an Adjunct Lecturer in Law at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law during the Spring 1994 semester.  Judge Hughes received a J.D. from Duke Law School in 1992, an M.A. from Duke University in 1992, and an A.B. from Harvard College in 1989.

Timothy B. Dyk was appointed by President William J. Clinton in 2000. Prior to his appointment, Judge Dyk was Partner and Chair, Issues and Appeals Practice Area, at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue from 1990 to 2000. He was Adjunct Professor at Yale Law School from 1986 to 1987 and 1989, at the University of Virginia Law School in 1984 and 1985, and from 1987 to 1988, and at the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983, 1986, 1989 and 1991. Judge Dyk was Associate and Partner, Wilmer Cutler & Pickering from 1964 to 1990. From 1963 to 1964, Judge Dyk served as Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Louis F. Oberdorfer. He also served as law clerk to Chief Justice Warren from 1962 to 1963, and to Justices Reed and Burton from 1961 to 1962. Judge Dyk received an A.B. from Harvard College in 1958 and an LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1961. He was First President of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court from 2000 to 2001 and President of the Giles Sutherland Rich Inn of Court from 2006 to 2007. Judge Dyk is co-author of the Chapter on Patents in the Fifth Edition of the treatise, Business and Commercial Litigation in Federal Courts. He was the recipient of the 2012 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Federal Circuit and the 2016 Honorable William C. Conner Inn of Court Excellence Award. He is a member of the American Law Institute.

Colm F. Connolly is the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.  He has served as a District Judge since 2018.  He was previously a United States Attorney, Assistant United States Attorney, and a partner with the law firms of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP and Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP.  Judge Connolly was a law clerk for the Honorable Walter K. Stapleton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1991 to 1992.  He holds degrees from Duke University School of Law, the London School of Economics, and the University of Notre Dame; and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the American Law Institute.

Judge Rodney Gilstrap was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Texas and was confirmed in 2011. He assumed the position of Chief Judge in 2018. He resides in Marshall, Texas and has judicial responsibilities in both the Marshall and Texarkana Divisions of the EDTX. Prior to assuming the bench, Judge Gilstrap was engaged in private practice of law in East Texas. During this time, he also was elected three times as County Judge of Harrison County, Texas. He holds a BA magna cum laude from Baylor University where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds a JD from the Baylor University School of Law where he was an Assoc. Editor of the Baylor Law Review. He has served as President of the Baylor Law Alumni Association. In 2018 he was named “The Baylor Lawyer of the Year” — the highest recognition given by his alma mater. He was also selected as the 2018 “Jurist of the Year” by TEXABOTA (comprising all 16 chapters in Texas of the American Board of Trial Advocates). In 2023, he was recognized with the Outstanding Public Service Award from The New York Intellectual Property Law Association.

Jonathan Zittrain is the George Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School, Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Director of the Harvard Law School Library, and Co-Founder of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. His research interests include the ethics and governance of artificial intelligence; battles for control of digital property; the regulation of cryptography; new privacy frameworks for loyalty to users of online services; the roles of intermediaries with in Internet architecture; and the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in education. He is currently focused on the ethics and governance of artificial intelligence and teaches a course on the topic. His book, The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It, predicted the end of general purpose client computing and the corresponding rise of new gatekeepers.  That and other works may be found at JZ.org.