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

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

, and a former chairman of the

Electronic Frontier Foundation The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties. It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...

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 Sout ...

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

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

in 1968, and earned a J.D. from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

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. courts of appeals, ...

. Johnson joined

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, law firm Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering 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 a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

and OSP liability, regulation, and other intellectual property matters. Johnson helped to write the

Electronic Communications Privacy Act The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend restrictions on government wire taps of telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer ( ''et seq.''), added n ...

(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 (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. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

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 Software, Lotus, where he was instr ...

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 Temple University Beasley School of Law, Beasley School of ...

. 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. 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 a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

– penning several critical papers with Susan P. Crawford. In 2006 he collaborated with Crawford in the establishment of OneWebDay. From 2004 to 2009 Johnson held the post of visiting professor at

New York Law School New York Law School (NYLS) is a private, American law school in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The third oldest law school in New York City, its history predates its official founding in 1891 by Theodore William Dwight, T ...

. 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