Donate to the Clinic

The Samuelson Clinic relies on your donations to advance the public interest.  See a list of the Clinic's supporters here.  

 

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Events in the Samuelson Clinic Community:

• Samuelson Clinic Informational Happy Hour
• The Obama Record on Consumer Protection, a conversation with David Vladeck
• The Digital Library Copyright Project
• Conference on Effective Consumer Privacy Enforcement
• Privacy Law Scholars' Conference
• Orphan Works Symposium
• Brian M. Sax Prize for Excellence in Clinical Advocacy

 

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The Clinic Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

The Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic is the leading clinical program in technology law, including Internet privacy law and policy. Through hands-on, real-world work, the Clinic trains law and graduate students in public interest work on technology, intellectual property, privacy, free speech, and other information policy issues. In this work, the Clinic pursues a dual mission: to support the public’s interest in technology law and policy, and to teach law students through real-world work, with live clients, on cutting-edge policy issues.

The Clinic's affiliated faculty and staff support Clinic students and clients with world-class expertise ranging from patent and copyright law to electronic privacy and online speech.

 Interested students should review our information page and apply here.

 

CLINIC CLIENTS

Samuelson Clinic students regularly work with organizations at the forefront of law and technology policy.  Past Clinic clients include:

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation
• ACLU of Northern California
• Center for Democracy and Technology
• Public Knowledge
• The Constitution Project
• Creative Commons
• The Mozilla Foundation
• The National Alliance for Media Art and Culture

 

See more...

 

CLINIC PROJECTS

The Clinic counsels public interest clients on intellectual property, online speech, and privacy issues, drafts briefs before various courts--including the U.S. Supreme Court, the California Supreme Court, federal and state trial and appellate courts--and participates in legislative and regulatory efforts to create sound technology policy.  

Some recent Clinic projects: 

• Clinic Briefs and Argues Motion for Summary Judgment on Social Networking Privacy Before the Northern District of California.
Clinic students working on behalf of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests and a subsequent lawsuit to obtain federal law enforcement policies for using social networking sites for investigations, data collection, and surveillance. Students drafted and filed a comprehensive motion for summary judgment demanding records, ploughed through over 1000 pages of government response material, filed their reply, and—in the Spring of 2012— prepped and presented oral argument in the Northern District of California.Clinic Plays Key Role in Adoption of New Privacy Rules on Smart Grids by the California Public Utilities Commission 
• Clinic Plays Key Role in Adoption of New Privacy Rules on Smart Grids by the California Public Utilities Commission. 
The new smart meters being installed in homes around California and the country provide much more data on energy customers than ever before--up to 750 to 3000 data points per month per household. Energy usage information of this granularity can reveal specific household activities such as sleep, work, and travel habits and allows utilities and third parties with access to the information to "see" what is going on inside the home. On behalf of client Center for Democracy and Technology, Clinic students submitted several sets of formal comments—to the National Institute for Standards and Technology; the California Public Utilities Commission; the Federal Communications Commission; and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy—urging policy makers to encourage strong privacy for the “Smart Grid” and to issue privacy protecting regulations based on the Fair Information Practice principles. After multiple rounds of comments, the California Public Utilities Commission in 2011 adopted, in part, the Clinic and CDT's privacy frameworks as part of rulemaking proceedings regulating the use of smart meters in California.
• Clinic Files Second Circuit Brief in Youtube-Viacom Litigation.
In the Spring of 2011, Clinic students helped draft and submit an amicus brief in the high-profile Viacom-Youtube copyright case before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, on behalf of clients the National Alliance for Media Art and Culture and the Alliance for Community Media.  In the brief, the clinic explained to the court how Internet platforms such as YouTube have allowed independent artists, creators, and speakers to reach worldwide audiences to tell stories, particularly of those unrepresented in traditional media. The brief also explains the importance of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to protect independent artists from certain kinds of liability.  
• Clinic Files Comments Before the Copyright Office Regarding Smartphone "Jailbreaking."
In the fall of 2011, Clinic students working on behalf of EFF went to the United States Copyright Office to demand that consumers and innovators be able to use their smartphones, tablets, and video game consoles as they see fit, and not be locked in to one manufacturer or service provider’s business model. Students interviewed “homebrew” video game makers and others, and filed multiple rulemaking comments asking the Copyright Office to allow consumers, fans and hackers to “jailbreak” the locks on these devices and use them to build the new, innovative apps, games and programs that can only come from grassroots users.

 

The Clinic's Projects and Cases and Resources and Publications pages include many other examples of past Clinic projects.