Jim Dempsey
Executive Director
Jim Dempsey is the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. A leading expert on privacy and Internet policy, Dempsey spent 18 years with the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C., and served as its executive director from 2003 to 2005. He led CDT’s Global Internet Policy Initiative, which worked with government officials, industry, and human rights organizations on Internet policy issues in developing and transitional countries. In 2012, after Senate confirmation, he was appointed by President Obama as a part-time member of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent federal agency, and served in that role until January 2017.
Jann Dudley
Associate Director
As Associate Director at BCLT, Jann is responsible for event management, donor communications and sponsorship, short and long range planning and managing a team of professionals to provide a wide range of programs and events for alumni, law students and the IP community. Jann brings to the table more than 20 years’ award-winning experience in law firm marketing, business development and administration. She has served as marketing director or manager at Orrick, Morgan Lewis, and, most recently, Archer Norris, among other Bay Area law firms. Jann holds a B.A. in Business & Humanities from Golden Gate University.
Richard Fisk
Assistant Director Events & Communications
Richard joined BCLT in September 2015. Prior to that, he was Special Events Manager for the 2015 San Francisco International Film Festival. From 2011- 2015, Richard was Director of Events at Central European University, a graduate institution in Budapest, Hungary. He has an extensive background in corporate project coordination, which is when he first began organizing large events. At BCLT, Richard is responsible for planning and executing the center’s extensive schedule of conferences, symposiums, forums, and workshops. Richard holds an M.A. in Broadcast and Electronic Communication from San Francisco State.
Matthew Ray
Assistant Director Program Development & Student Engagement
Matthew has over 5 years of experience working for the University of California, both at Berkeley and Santa Cruz. At BCLT, Matthew enhances law students’ educational experience by managing the Tuesday-Thursday speakers series, coordinating the Law & Technology Certificate, organizing career fair and networking events, advising law and tech-related student groups, and coordinating the mentor program. Matthew also works as a tutor and researcher. Before joining BCLT in 2019, Matthew held positions at The Humanities Institute, CASMA, and the Institute for Jewish Law. Matthew holds a BA in History with a minor in East Asian Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
Nathalie Coletta
Event Planning & Communications Coordinator
Nathalie is a recent graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she worked for three years as an Event Assistant for the Dickens Project. She graduated in 2020 with a BA in Philosophy along with a minor in Literature and soon after joined the Berkely Law staff. She works with BCLT as well as BJI, and is responsible for helping organize and coordinate various symposia, conferences, and workshops.
Irys Schenker
Office Administrator
Irys joined BCLT as Office Administrator in July 2016, having worked for the previous 3 years in a similar capacity in the Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department at Columbia University. Before that, she worked in the business and legal affairs units at Lifetime Television Networks and at IFC/Sundance Channel. As Office Administrator, Irys is responsible for all BCLT reimbursements, payments, and procurements. An accomplished artist, Irys holds a BA from San Francisco State University and an MFA from The School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Mark Cohen
Senior Fellow and Director, BCLT Asia IP Project
Mark Cohen joined Berkeley Law in 2017 as a Senior Fellow and Director of BCLT’s Asia IP Project. With over 30 years’ experience as a law firm attorney, in-house counsel, government official, and adjunct and visiting professor of law, Cohen was previously Senior Counsel and Senior Advisor to the Undersecretary of Commerce/Director of the USPTO. He is widely recognized as the leading expert in the U.S. on intellectual property law in China. As Director of the BCLT Asia IP Project, Cohen is working with BCLT sponsors and faculty directors to develop collaborative relationships with academic institutions and other partners in Asia, including organizing workshops, conferences, and other events that bring data-driven insight to the complex IP landscape in China and other Asian fora. Mark hosts the popular blog www.chinaipr.com, serves as an advisor to the IP database iphouse.cn, and has published books and articles on China’s IP system, antitrust law in China, civil and administrative enforcement of IP, and foreign law firms practicing law in China.
Xiaofan Xu
Legal Research Fellow
Xiaofan Xu joined BCLT in February 2020 as a Research Fellow on our Asia IP and Technology Project. She had most recently been working at Via Licensing Corporation as a legal consultant. Dr. Xu recevied her LL.M. from Berkeley (2017), her Ph.D. degree in antitrust law from Zhejiang University (2015), and was a post-doc at Shanghai Jiao Tong University under Prof. Wang Xianlin. Dr. Xu has also worked with the National Development and Reform Commission and State Administration for Industry and Commerce on drafting Anti-Monopoly guidelines on IP abuse.
Robert Barr
BCLT Executive Director Emeritus
Robert Barr was the Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology from 2005 to 2015. Formerly, he was the Vice President for Intellectual Property and Worldwide Patent Counsel for Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, where he was responsible for all patent prosecution, licensing, and litigation. Robert has degrees in Electrical Engineering and Political Science from MIT and a JD from Boston University School of Law. He is a frequent speaker on patent reform and has testified twice at the Federal Trade Commission hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy. He was named by the Daily Journal as one of the top 25 Intellectual Property Lawyers in California in 2003, and as one of the top 10 in-house intellectual property lawyers in 2004.