Susan P. Crawford (born February 27, 1963) is the John A. Reilly Clinical Professor of Law at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

. She served as President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and is a columnist for

WIRED ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

. She is a former Board Member 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 ...

, the founder 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 ...

, and a legal scholar. Her research focuses on telecommunications and information law.

Early life and education

Crawford was born in 1963 and grew up in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to i ...

, where she attended

Santa Monica High School Santa Monica High School, officially abbreviated to SaMoHi, is located in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1891, it changed location several times in its early years before settling into its present campus at 601 Pico Boulevard. It is a part o ...

, and played

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

in the "Samohi" orchestra. Crawford received her

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

(

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 ...

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

) and J.D. from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

. While at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, Crawford was the principal violist in the

Yale Symphony Orchestra The Yale Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra at Yale University which performs in Yale's Woolsey Hall and tours internationally and domestically. The present Music Director is William Boughton. History The Yale Symphony Orchestra was foun ...

and continues her daily practice and occasionally performs publicly.

Career

After earning her J.D. degree, Crawford served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

for

Judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

Raymond J. Dearie Raymond Joseph Dearie (born June 4, 1944) is an American lawyer who is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. He also served as a Judge of the United States Foreign Intellig ...

of the

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (in case citations, E.D.N.Y.) is the federal district court whose territorial jurisdiction spans five counties in New York State: the four Long Island counties of Nassau, ...

, and was a partner at

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 ...

( Washington, D.C.) until the end of 2002, when she left that firm to become a professor. After first teaching at

Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the Law school in the United States, law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court Associate Just ...

in New York City, Crawford became a visiting professor at the

University of Michigan Law School The University of Michigan Law School (Michigan Law) is the law school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1859, the school offers Master of Laws (LLM), Master of Comparative Law (MCL ...

in the fall of 2007. After visiting at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a 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.S. News & World ...

in the spring of 2008, she was admitted to the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School. On July 1, 2010 Crawford rejoined the faculty at Cardozo, and also commenced as a Visiting Research Collaborator at the Center for Information Technology Policy at

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...

. In 2012, Crawford visited Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government as the Stanton Professor of the First Amendment and also was a Visiting Professor at

. Since 2015 she has been on the faculty of Harvard Law School. In 2015, ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American, German-owned political journalism newspaper company based in Arlington County, Virginia, that covers politics and policy in the United States and intern ...

'' named Crawford (along with scholars

Marvin Ammori Marvin Ammori is a lawyer, civil liberties advocate, and scholar best known for his work on network neutrality and Internet freedom issues. He currently serves as Chief Legal Officer of Uniswap. Education and career Ammori attended Brother R ...

and

Tim Wu Timothy "Tim" Shiou-Ming Wu (born 1972) is a Taiwanese American legal scholar and official in the Biden Administration tasked with Technology and Competition policy. He was also a professor of law at Columbia University and a contributing opini ...

) as one of its top 50 thinkers of the year, citing her contributions to the

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

movement.

Internet activism

Crawford served as a member of the Board of Directors for

from 2005-2008. In 2005 she founded OneWebDay - a global celebration of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. She is known as a champion of

, and has written on many other current policy issues. In 2012,

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Univers ...

published her book, '' Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.'' In April 2014, Crawford proposed that a possible solution to

concerns may be

municipal broadband Municipal broadband is broadband Internet access owned by public entities. Services are often provided either fully or partially by local governments to residents within certain areas or jurisdictions. Common connection technologies include unlice ...

. Crawford was critical of the FCC's 2017 decision to end net neutrality, stating that the ruling was "handing the power to choose winners and losers online to about five companies."

Public service

Crawford and

Kevin Werbach Kevin Werbach is an American academic, businessman and author. In 2002, he founded the Supernova Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm. Since 2004, Werbach is an Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton Sch ...

served on the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

Review team in the

Obama transition The presidential transition of Barack Obama began when he won the United States presidential election on November 4, 2008, and became the president-elect. Obama was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 15, 2008. The results w ...

. In early 2009, Crawford was appointed the President's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy. In October 2009, it was announced that she would step down when her one-year sabbatical from the University of Michigan ended in January 2010. In October 2011, Crawford was appointed to Mayor Bloomberg's Council on Technology and Innovation.

Awards

* ''

Fast Company ''Fast Company'' is a monthly American business magazine published in print and online that focuses on technology, business, and design. It publishes six print issues per year. History ''Fast Company'' was launched in November 1995 by Alan Web ...

'' – Top 100 Global Thinkers (2013) * ''Prospect'' Magazine – Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future (2011) *

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...

– Tech 40: Most Influential Minds in Tech (2013) *

–Top 50 Thinkers of the Year (2015)

Books

* * *

References

External links

Susan P. Crawford's website
;Video *
Speaker series with Susan Crawford on U.S. Telecommunications Policy
Google video, Dec 14, 2007.
"Rethinking Broadband"
Personal Democracy Forum conference on Jun 4 2010.
"Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair"
''

Moyers & Company ''Moyers & Company'' was a commentary and interview television show hosted by Bill Moyers, and broadcast via syndication on public television stations in the United States. The weekly show covered current affairs affecting everyday Americans, and ...

'', PBS, February 8, 2013
"After Words with Susan Crawford"
''

Book TV ''Book TV'' is the name given to weekend programming on the American cable network C-SPAN2 airing from 8 a.m. Eastern Time Sunday morning to 8 a.m. Eastern Time Monday morning each week. The 24-hour block of programming is focused on non-fictio ...

'', ''

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

'', Jun 27, 2013
"Responsive Cities"
''Responsive Cities'', ''2014 Knight-Civic Media Conference'', Jun 23, 2014 ;Articles
ARTICLES BY SUSAN P CRAWFORD
Bloomberg View 2011-2012
Transporting Communications
Boston University Law Review, Volume 89 Number 3 - June 2009
WIRED author - Susan Crawford

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

magazine articles February 2012 to present. {{DEFAULTSORT:Crawford, Susan P. 1963 births Living people Obama administration personnel Yale Law School alumni American women lawyers University of Michigan Law School faculty Harvard Kennedy School faculty Harvard Law School faculty Cardozo School of Law faculty 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners Women legal scholars