Contact Information: Contact: Michael Larkin Cooley Godward Kronish 212-479-6333 mlarkin@cooley.com Seth Young Berkman Center for Internet & Society Harvard University 617.384.9135 syoung@cyber.law.harvard.edu
Cooley Establishes Harvard Law School's First Cyberlaw Clinic Fellowship
| Source: Cooley Godward Kronish LLP
PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - February 18, 2009) - Cooley Godward Kronish LLP announced that it
has established the first Cyberlaw Clinic Fellowship at Harvard Law
School's Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. The
Firm has committed to support the Fellowship position for the next five
years.
The Cooley Fellow will become an integral part of the Cyberlaw Clinic's
cutting-edge teaching and representation of clients -- individuals, small
start-ups, non-profit groups and government entities -- on matters
involving online speech and anonymity; open access, digital copyright and
fair use; software and music licensing; patent reexaminations; and
protection of children using the internet.
In addition to Cooley's support for the Clinical Fellow, Cooley and the
Cyberlaw Clinic will initiate a collaboration that will include Cooley
attorney support of and guidance on some of the Clinic's ongoing cases and
projects and on-campus presentations from Cooley attorneys. The first
Cooley Fellow will be announced this spring.
"We are deeply grateful to Cooley for this important gift," said Acting
Dean Howell Jackson '82. "Their financial support and commitment to an
ongoing pro bono collaboration with us represent a major step forward for
our Cyberlaw Clinic. Cooley's generosity and wealth of expertise will
enable the Clinic to enhance its innovative teaching, providing some of the
best law school students in the country with engaging and challenging
experiences that marry theory with practice to solve pressing legal and
policy issues in this fast-moving area of the law."
"For decades, Cooley has worked with the world's leading high tech
companies, including the pioneers of the internet and e-commerce," said
Eric Reifschneider, head of Cooley's technology transactions practice and a
1992 magna cum laude Harvard Law School graduate. "We are gratified to have
the opportunity to work closely now with the best and brightest professors
and students in the rapidly evolving field of cyberlaw."
Cooley has close ties to Harvard Law School (HLS) with alumni holding key
positions throughout the Firm. Currently, HLS alumni lead three of the
Firm's offices; serve on the Firm's Management Committee; and lead the
Technology Transactions and the Mergers & Acquisitions practice groups.
Recent work by the Cyberlaw Clinic has included the submission of amicus
curiae briefs in two cases supporting free and open online speech: one
urging a broad reading of the Massachusetts anti-SLAPP law to apply to
defendants who are members of the news media or who receive compensation
for blogging; the other challenging two broad injunctions issued by a
federal judge in San Francisco effectively shutting down the web site
wikileaks.org over its posting of bank records released by a purported
employee whistleblower. The Clinic also prepared and submitted comments to
the US Copyright Office requesting an exemption for abandoned digital
rights management systems from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act
anti-circumvention provisions.
About Cooley Godward Kronish LLP
Cooley Godward Kronish's 675 attorneys have an entrepreneurial spirit and
deep, substantive experience, and are committed to solving clients' most
challenging legal matters. From small companies with big ideas to
international enterprises with diverse legal needs, Cooley has the breadth
of legal resources to enable companies of all sizes to seize opportunities
in today's global marketplace. The Firm represents clients across a broad
array of dynamic industry sectors, including technology, life sciences,
clean technology, real estate, financial services, retail and energy.
The Firm has full-service offices in major business and technology centers
nationwide: Palo Alto, CA, New York, NY, San Diego, CA, San Francisco, CA,
Reston, VA, Broomfield, CO, Washington, DC, Boston, MA and Seattle, WA.
For additional information on Cooley, please visit www.cooley.com.
About the Harvard Law School Cyberlaw Clinic
The Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society engages
Harvard Law students in a wide range of real-world litigation, licensing,
client counseling, advocacy, and legislative projects and cases, covering a
broad spectrum of Internet, new technology, and intellectual property legal
issues. The Berkman Clinic was the first of its kind and today continues
its tradition of innovation in this area. The scope of the Clinic's work
includes counseling and legal guidance for complex open access, digital
copyright and fair use issues; litigation, amicus filings and other
advocacy to protect online speech and anonymity; legal resources and advice
for citizen journalists; software and music licensing and contract advice,
especially regarding Creative Commons and other "open" licenses; patent
reexamination requests for overly broad technology patents; and guidance
and amicus advocacy for effective but balanced protection of children in
the areas of social networking, child pornography and online exploitation;
among many other areas. More information can be found at
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu.