Harvard Law School has announced the appointment of Urs Gasser LL.M. ’03, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, as a Professor of Practice.

The professorships of practice at Harvard Law School are given to outstanding individuals whose teaching is informed by extensive expertise from the worlds of law practice, the judiciary, policy and governance.

Gasser’s scholarship and teaching focus on information law and policy, society issues, and the interplay between law and innovation. His projects explore such topics as policy and educational challenges for young Internet users, the regulation of digital technology (currently with focus on cloud computing), ICT interoperability, information quality, the law’s impact on innovation and risk in the ICT space, cybersecurity, and alternative governance systems.

Said HLS Dean Martha Minow: “Urs Gasser is an international leader in information law, internet use and governance, youth media, and the relationship between law and innovation. His work exploring how the Internet is promoting significant shifts in the information ecosystem has been pivotal, most recently in helping to launch the global Network of Internet & Society Centers, a collaborative initiative among academic institutions to advance new cross-national, cross-disciplinary research, teaching and engagement on the most pressing policy questions surrounding new technologies and social change. I could not be more delighted that he will take up this appointment as a Professor of Practice.”

Said Gasser: “I am deeply honored to continue serving at HLS in this new role. I look forward to working with our extraordinary students and sharing my international experience with the wonderful Law School community.”

In addition to teaching at HLS, Gasser teaches at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and the Fudan University School of Management in China.

He has written and edited several books, and published more than 100 articles in professional journals. He is the co-author, with John Palfrey ’01, of “Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives” and “Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems.”

Before returning to the Berkman Center as executive director in 2009, Gasser served as associate professor of law at the University of St. Gallen, where he was faculty director of the Research Center for Information Law, and as a visiting professor at KEIO University in Japan. Prior to those appointments, he served as a resident and faculty fellow at the Berkman Center, where he was the lead research fellow on the Digital Media Project, a multi-disciplinary research project aimed at exploring the transition from offline/analog to online/digital media.

Gasser is a graduate of University of St. Gallen (S.J.D. 2001, J.D. 1997) and Harvard Law School (LL.M. ’03).