Faculty Profiles
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Jennifer M. Urban
Title: Assistant Clinical Professor of Law; Director, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic
Office: 585 Simon Hall
Tel: 510-642-7338
Email Address: jurban@law.berkeley.edu
Jennifer M. Urban joined Berkeley Law in 2009 as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the UC Berkeley School of Law. She comes to Berkeley Law from the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law, where she founded and directed the USC Intellectual Property &Technology Law Clinic and taught classes on issues related to intellectual property, privacy and individual rights in a world of rapid technological and societal change.
At USC, Urban’s clinic students represented public interest clients in numerous cases and projects related to IP and technology law, including, for example: copyright legislative work on “orphan works;” consumer counseling work around web reputation and privacy; defensive patent licensing; and work with small filmmakers and other artists on fair use, licensing and free expression.
Urban's recent scholarly work includes "Efficient Process or 'Chilling Effects'? Takedown Notices Under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act," in the Santa Clara Computer and High Technology Journal; and "Legal Uncertainty in Free and Open Source Software and the Political Response," a chapter in The Politics of Open Source Adoption published by Social Science Research Council in an innovative collaborative format. She has filed numerous amicus briefs on behalf of public interest non-profit clients.
Joining the faculty at Berkeley Law is a homecoming for Urban. Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2004, she was the Samuelson Clinic’s first fellow, teaching as a lecturer and visiting professor at Berkeley Law. Prior to that, she was an attorney with the Venture Law Group in Silicon Valley. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in biological science (concentration in neurobiology and behavior) and from Berkeley Law with a J.D. (intellectual property certificate). She was the Annual Review of Law and Technology editor while a student at Berkeley Law, and received the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology Distinguished Alumni Award in 2003.
