David R. Johnson is lawyer specializing in computer communications. He is a senior fellow at

Center for Democracy and Technology Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT) is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organisation that advocates for digital rights and freedom of expression. CDT seeks to promote legislation that enables individuals to use the internet for pur ...

, and a former chairman of the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. The foundation was formed on 10 July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor to promote Internet ci ...

Career

Johnson graduated from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

with a B.A. ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' in 1967. He completed a year of postgraduate study at

University College, Oxford University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the univer ...

in 1968, and earned a J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

in 1972. For a year following graduation Johnson clerked for Malcolm R. Wilkey of the

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

. Johnson joined

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, law firm

Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, also known as Hale & Dorr and WilmerHale, is an international law firm with offices in the United States, Europe and Asia. It is co-headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It was formed in 2004 thr ...

in 1973, and became a partner in 1980. His practice focused primarily on the emerging area of electronic commerce, including counseling on issues relating to privacy, domain names and Internet governance issues, jurisdiction, copyright, taxation, electronic contracting, encryption, defamation,

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

and

OSP Osp (; it, Ospo) is a village in the City Municipality of Koper in the Littoral region of Slovenia. Overview The Osp Valley is a passage through the karst and coastal region of Istria. It extends from below the village of Črni Kal to the sea ...

liability, regulation, and other intellectual property matters. Johnson helped to write the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (1986) Johnson was active in the introduction of personal computers in law practice, acting as president and CEO of Counsel Connect, a system connecting corporate counsel and outside law firms, and serving the board of the

Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction The Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction, also known as CALI, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that does research and development in online legal education. CALI publishes over 1,200 interactive tutorials, free casebooks, and develops software ...

(CALI) and as a trustee of the National Center for Automated Information Research (NCAIR). In 1991 Johnson was a co-founder of the Law Practice Technology Roundtable. In October 1993, coincidental with the move of its main offices from

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

to D.C., Johnson became a director of the

. In February 2005, while serving as the organization's Senior Policy Fellow, Johnson replaced founder

Mitch Kapor Mitchell David Kapor ( ; born November 1, 1950) is an American entrepreneur best known for his work as an application developer in the early days of the personal computer software industry, later founding Lotus, where he was instrumental in deve ...

as chairman of the EFF Board. Johnson departed Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1995, and in 1996 co-founded the Cyberspace Law Institute with

David G. Post David G. Post (born 1951) is an American legal scholar. Post is an expert in intellectual property law and cyberspace law. Until his retirement in 2014, Post served as Professor of Law at Beasley School of Law of Temple University in Philadelph ...

. He was involved in discussions leading to the Clinton/Gore Framework for Global Electronic Commerce in 1997. In February 1998 Johnson was appointed as founding director of the

Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project Aspen is a common name for certain tree species; some, but not all, are classified by botanists in the section ''Populus'', of the ''Populus'' genus. Species These species are called aspens: *''Populus adenopoda'' – Chinese aspen (China, ...

. In the early 2000s, along with Post, Johnson was active in the re-organization of

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces ...

– penning several critical papers with

Susan P. Crawford Susan P. Crawford (born February 27, 1963) is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She served as President Barack Obama's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and is a columnist f ...

. In 2006 he collaborated with Crawford in the establishment of

OneWebDay OneWebDay is an annual day of Internet celebration and awareness held on September 22. The stated goal of founder Susan P. Crawford is for OneWebDay to foster and make visible a global constituency that cares about the future of the Internet. Hi ...

. From 2004 to 2009 Johnson held the post of visiting professor at

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...

. In May 2009 he commenced a one-year senior fellowship with the

Writings

*''Regulation and the Political Process'' co-authored with Lloyd N. Cutler, 84 Yale Law Journal 1395 (June 1975) *''Law and Borders - The Rise of Law in Cyberspace'' co-authored with David G. Post, 48 Stanford Law Review 1367 (May 1996) (1997 McGannon Award) *'' The Life of the Law Online'' 51 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 956 (2007) or First Monday, Issue 11–2. *
THE ACCOUNTABLE NET:PEER PRODUCTION OF INTERNET GOVERNANCE
' w/ Susan P. Crawford, John G. Palfrey, Jr. (Aspen Institute) 2004

References

External links

* Cyberlaw Institute {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, David R. American lawyers Living people Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners Yale Law School alumni Alumni of University College, Oxford Year of birth missing (living people) Yale College alumni