Susan Crawford has been appointed clinical professor of law at Harvard Law School. She had been the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at HLS. She has also been a faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society since 2012.
“Susan Crawford’s teaching, writing, and public service make her a genuine leader in technology, law, and innovation during this time of crucial challenges and opportunities,” said Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law. “Her creativity, foresight, and clarity help cities become more responsive to their residents, raise questions for public debate about access and equality, and open tremendous opportunities for students and citizens to participate in and affect the information revolution. I am thrilled to welcome her to the full-time faculty of the Law School and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.”
Jonathan Zittrain, faculty director of the Berkman Center and Bemis Professor of International Law at HLS said, “The Berkman Center hasn’t merely gained a new faculty member, but an additional dimension. There is no such thing as a boring conversation with Professor Crawford. She rigorously develops positions bold and thoughtful and concrete enough to stimulate serious and productive debate—to get us beyond our assumptions and habits.”
Crawford was formerly a professor at Cardozo Law School and the University of Michigan Law School. She served as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy during 2009. Crawford also co-led the FCC transition team between the Bush and Obama administrations, and was a member of former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Advisory Council on Technology and Innovation. She is a member of current New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Broadband Task Force.
She is the author of “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age” (Yale University Press, 2013) and co-author of “The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance” with Stephen Goldsmith (Jossey-Bass, 2014), as well as many law journal articles. Crawford is a frequent contributor to Medium.com’s Backchannel.
“I am excited and honored to join the Harvard Law School faculty. I welcome this extraordinary opportunity, and I am grateful for the deep interest of the law school community in the intersections among technology, policy, governance, and quality of life,” said Crawford.
Crawford was a member of the board of directors of ICANN from 2005-2008 and is the founder of OneWebDay, a global Earth Day for the Internet that takes place each September 22nd. She has been named one of TIME Magazine’s Tech 40: The Most Influential Minds in Tech (2013), Newsweek Magazine’s 100 Digital Disruptors (2012), Prospect Magazine’s Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future (2011), Fast Company’s Most Influential Women in Technology (2009), and was an IP3 Awardee (2010).
Crawford received her B.A. and J.D. from Yale University. She served as a clerk for Judge Raymond J. Dearie of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She was a partner in the law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (now WilmerHale) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to enter the legal academy.