What's the Big Idea: Law and Our Technological Future

Ericson Innovation Fund Law and Technology Conference

February 3, 2023


Location

Northwestern University San Francisco
44 Montgomery St, 18th floor, San Francisco, CA 94104
map

Conference Organizers

Emerson H. Tiller, J. Landis Martin Professor of Law & Business, Director of West Coast Initiatives
Daniel W. Linna Jr., Senior Lecturer and Director of Law and Technology Initiatives 


The Ericson Innovation Fund was generously established in 2018 by William W. Ericson (JD ’88) and Carmen Rodriguez Ericson (JD ’88, P'18 and '22) to facilitate conversations about legal issues facing the technology sector. Northwestern Pritzker School of Law is very grateful to the Ericsons for making this Conference possible.

Agenda

8:00 a.m. Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m. Introduction and Welcome Remarks

Daniel W. Linna Jr., Senior Lecturer and Director of Law and Technology Initiatives, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Hari M. Osofsky, Dean and Myra and James Bradwell Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

Emerson H. Tiller, J. Landis Martin Professor of Law & Business, Director of West Coast Initiatives, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, Affiliated Faculty, Ford Motor Company Center for Global Citizenship, Professor of Business Law, Kellogg School of Management

Elisa Jagerson, Managing Director, Wildcat Venture Partners

9:20 a.m. Panel I: Regulating Information Platforms

What role, if any, can and should the law play in regulating speech and information distributed through online platforms?

Moderator: Daniel B. Rodriguez, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Hannah Bloch-Wehba, Texas A&M University School of Law
Jon Callas, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Director of Public Interest Technology
Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University School of Law
Paul Gowder, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law

10:40 a.m. Break

11:00 a.m. Panel II: Legal Considerations in Bioinformatics: Privacy, Security, and More

The accessibility of genetic data heralds as much potential as it does legal and ethical questions. This panel will focus on the privacy and security challenges for this nascent but growing field.

Moderator: Laura Pedraza-Fariña, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Lauren Foster Wu, Evidation Health
Shelly Simana, Stanford Law School

12:20 p.m. Lunch 

1:30 p.m. Panel III: Climate Tech: How can Regulation Foster Meaningful Innovation?

Moderator: Dean Hari M. Osofsky, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Gautam Barua, Aclaria Partners
Lisa Benjamin, Lewis & Clark Law School
Alexander Fishkin, FreeWire Technologies
Elisa Jagerson, Wildcat Venture Partners

2:50 p.m. Break

3:10 p.m. Panel IV: Legal Ordering, Compliance, and the Rule of Law by Design and Default

Looking forward, can we proactively embed law, regulations, respect for human rights, and democratic principles into products and systems by design and default?

Moderator: Daniel W. Linna Jr., Northwestern Pritzker School of Law & McCormick School of Engineering
Abdi Aidid, University of Toronto Faculty of Law
Danielle Benecke, Baker & McKenzie LLP
Sarah Lawsky, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Jonathan Protzenko, Microsoft

4:30 p.m. Closing Remarks

Speaker: Geoffrey Moore, Wildcat Venture Partners

4:50 p.m. Networking Reception


Conference Program
(pdf) »