Rebecca Wexler’s teaching and research focus on data, technology, and secrecy in the criminal legal system, with a particular focus on evidence law, trade secret law, and data privacy. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, NYU Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Texas Law Review, Vanderbilt Law Review, and Berkeley Technology Law Journal, as well as in peer-reviewed computer science publications.
Wexler’s scholarly theories have twice been proposed for codification into federal law and litigated in multiple courts, including a cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her article Privacy as Privilege received the Privacy Law Scholars’ Conference 2020 Reidenberg-Kerr Award for overall merit for a paper by an untenured faculty member, and was named a 2021 “Must Read” article by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Her Op-Eds have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Monthly, and Slate, and her work has been featured on NPR, among other media venues.
Wexler will serve as senior policy advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in Spring 2023, and as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School in Fall 2023.
Education
B.A., Harvard College, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa Junior Inductee
M.Phil., Cambridge University, high first distinction, Gates-Cambridge Fellow
J.D., Yale Law School, The Yale Law Journal Forum Editor
Greatest Hits: A Dozen Stories From 2023 That Reflect Berkeley Law’s Impact
From helping to write a tribe’s constitution to providing free training worldwide on digital investigations of human rights violations to propelling crypto industry reform, the school had quite a year.
Instant Impact: Close-Knit Junior Faculty Waste No Time Making a Strong Early Impression
Our stellar early-career professors are making their mark across a wide swath of academic fields.
Two Professors Start Tech-Related White House Appointments to Help Shape U.S. Policy
Privacy experts Catherine Crump and Rebecca Wexler take on key posts with the White House Domestic Policy Council and White House Office of Science Technology Policy, respectively.
Standing Firm: How Berkeley Law Faculty and Students are Stepping Up to Advance and Defend Basic Rights
With basic rights in peril at home and around the world, the law school community is answering the call.
UC Berkeley Wins $5 Million to Launch Center Advancing Decentralization Technology
Berkeley Law Professor Rebecca Wexler will help lead the center, which aims to help users gain more control of their data, democratize access to it, and ensure that it remains secure.
Federal Ability to Buy Citizen Data Worries Lawmakers and Experts Alike
“This data tracking is…it means that people who are pregnant and seeking access to medical care (are) extraordinarily vulnerable to having their data sold to vigilantes as well as provided voluntarily to law enforcement or obtained by law enforcement across state lines,” Professor Rebecca Wexler, a co-faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee.
With Roe Overturned, Tech Companies Will Have to Weigh Big Data Questions
Professor Rebecca Wexler, a faculty co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, talks about how big and small tech companies will need to have a response to the question of what to do with users’ data if new laws try to restrict access to information about abortion and other reproductive services in the post-Roe environment. “Anything they do or don’t do, it’s going to be a choice with consequences. It also means they’ve got a lot of power at this point,” she says. “They have power to reclaim some of the privacy from government intrusion that Roe once guaranteed, and that the court has just eviscerated.”
Supreme Court Overturns Roe: What Role for Big Tech?
Professor Rebecca Wexler discusses the role of big tech in a post-Roe world, and why the fight over sensitive data will be of essence to protect patients.
Op-ed: Big Tech can help women in a post-Roe world. Will it?
Professor Rebecca Wexler, with U Chicago Law’s Professor Aziz Huq, writes, in an era of medication abortion and remote medicine, states’ ability to clamp down on abortion access turns partly on their ability to identify who is seeking such care. Tech companies can make that harder, or easier.
A secret algorithm is transforming DNA evidence. This defendant could be the first to scrutinize it.
Professor Rebecca Wexler discusses a key problem with using a proprietary algorithm in the criminal legal system
California High Court Sets Rules for Facebook Subpoena
Professor Rebecca Wexler says the California Supreme Court opinion in Touchstone v Facebook reflects a real skepticism of Facebook’s claims about the Stored Communications Act
Convicted by software? Not so fast, says California lawmaker
Professor Rebecca Wexler discusses the issues with the current rules of evidence in criminal court, which do not account for the rise of forensic software, or for the entrance of trade secrets claims
Facebook and Twitter Want to Keep the Justice System Stacked Against Defendants
Professor Rebecca Wexler argues that the courts’ interpretation of the Stored Communications Act has created a category of privileged communication without congressional approval or instruction
Algorithms Used in Policing Face Policy Review
Professor Rebecca Wexler weighs in on the trade-secret and intellectual property issues related to algorithms currently in use to solve crimes
Pushing Toward Forensic Fairness
Research by professors Rebecca Wexler and Andrea Roth sparks a federal bill to help level the forensic evidence playing field.
Berkeley Law Duo Sparks Proposed Bill for More Forensic Algorithm Access
Scholars Rebecca Wexler and Andrea Roth prompt a California congressman to introduce a federal bill that would make the algorithms more transparent to criminal defendants.
Four Score: Standout Quartet Joins Berkeley Law Faculty
Frank Partnoy, Seth Davis, and Erik Stallman ’03 have begun teaching at the school, with Rebecca Wexler to join next year.