BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW, a top-tier law school with an international reputation, is a community of leading legal scholars, teachers, students, and alumni, dedicated to providing one of the finest legal educations in the world. Since our doors opened in 1872, we have admitted and enrolled accomplished students to our programs, without regard to race, sex, or religion. The breadth and depth of our curriculum, especially our clinical program, as well as our innovative spirit are distinctive in U.S. legal education.

Boston University School of Law is seeking candidates with the potential and/or experience in clinical teaching and with expertise in intellectual property, data privacy, media law, and/or cybersecurity for a full-time Clinical Professor/Clinical Associate Professor position to serve as the Director of its Student Innovations Law Clinic (“Clinic”). This opening is for a non-tenure-track clinical faculty position with a projected start date of July 1, 2025. The Clinic is part of a unique collaboration between BU Law and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is part of BU Law’s Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, and Cyberlaw Program. In the Clinic, six full-time clinical faculty oversee law students in three practice groups, including Venture & Finance, Intellectual Property & Media, and Privacy, Security, and Health, and they provide legal assistance to BU and MIT students as they engage in cutting-edge technology research, advocacy, and creation.

Our university community welcomes differences, encourages open-minded exploration, and upholds freedom of expression. At Boston University School of Law, we are dedicated to building a just, inclusive, and engaged community of faculty, staff, and students. We recognize we have more work to do to achieve this vision. Boston University School of Law is committed not only to the ideals of faculty diversity and inclusion but also to the work of creating and implementing practices that combat exclusion and inequity by race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability status, religion, socioeconomic class, and other identities subject to historical subordination. We also strive to foster a more inclusive intellectual culture that represents and encourages a broad range of intellectual traditions and approaches to the law. We welcome expressions of interest from applicants of all identities, intellectual traditions, and perspectives.

The Clinic represents current students at MIT and BU on matters related to their technology-related research, advocacy, and innovation. The Clinic frequently advises clients in the areas of data privacy, intellectual property, computer access laws, media law, and technology regulatory compliance. Clinic faculty help law students assist clients in counseling, pre-litigation, and transactional settings, and possibly also in litigation matters, including response to cease-and-desist letters and litigation under open records laws. Clients often present novel questions of law in emerging areas of technology, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, encryption and cryptography, and novel methods of online platform scrutiny and analysis.

The Clinic Director will be responsible for clinical teaching as well as coordination and oversight of all aspects of the operation and development of the program, including oversight of the other five faculty in the Clinic. The Clinic Director’s primary responsibilities include: supervising and training law students on client matters; teaching and developing curricular materials for the Clinic’s year-long seminar; managing the Clinic’s reporting to the oversight board and the senior leadership at both BU and MIT; planning the strategic growth and development of the Clinic; managing full-time faculty who are teaching in the Clinic; and collaborating with partners in Computing and Data Sciences, Computer Science, and other departments at BU and MIT on interdisciplinary initiatives in law and technology.

Required Skills

The ideal candidate is a member of the Massachusetts bar or is eligible for membership via admission by motion, with at least six years of experience in data privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, and/or media law settings. Experience with clinical legal education, technology or media litigation, or sectoral data privacy regulation, is considered a plus. Managerial experience in a legal setting is also a plus. Strong writing, editing, organizational, and managerial skills are required.

DO NOT APPLY THROUGH THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY HR WEBSITE.

Applicants should send a letter of interest and a resume before December 1, 2024, to the Faculty Appointments Committee at Boston University School of Law, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215. Applications should be sent to lawappts@bu.edu. All open faculty positions are pending budgetary approval.

To learn more about the law school, visit our website at www.bu.edu/law.

BU conducts a background check on all final candidates for certain faculty and staff positions. The background check includes contacting the final candidate’s current and previous employer(s) to ask whether, in the last seven years, there has been a substantiated finding of misconduct violating that employer’s applicable sexual misconduct policies. To implement this process, the University requires a final candidate to complete and sign the form entitled “Authorization to Release Information” after execution of an offer letter.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor .

Required Experience