The 5th Annual Legal Ethics Conference at California Western School of Law addresses the myriad challenges and ethical dilemmas of the rapidly expanding world of artificial intelligence. Our speakers include distinguished legal scholars, national policy experts, international voices, and local leaders. They will convene to share their expertise on the incredible power of machines—to recognize faces, to diagnose disease, to make employment decisions, and even to create works of art—and how that power raises important questions about transparency, legitimacy, bias, fairness, equity, consciousness, and human identity. The virtual conference format will move quickly through an array of topics and issues and will include opportunities for interaction with our panelists and networking with other participants.
Please join us on Friday, May 14, 2021, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Conference Schedule (subject to change)
9:00–9:05 |
Welcome and Introduction: Dean Sean Scott |
9:05–9:15 |
Conference Introduction: Tim Casey |
Panel #1: Overview of AI
Moderator: Tim Casey, California Western |
9:15–9:30 |
Brenda Leong, Future of Privacy Forum
AI, Harms & Ethical Governance |
9:30–9:45 |
Josh Davis, USF School of Law
AI, Consciousness, Ethics, and Legal Philosophy |
9:45–10:00 |
Brad Wendel, Cornell Law School
Automation Dependency |
10:00–10:15 |
Tom Barton, California Western
Designing a Legal System for an Algorithmic Society |
10:15–10:30 |
Lilly Irani, UCSD, Department of Communications
Algorithms of Suspicion |
10:30–10:45 |
Breakout #1 |
10:45–10:55 |
Break #1 |
Panel #2: Specific Applications of AI
Moderator: Brenda Simon, California Western |
10:55–11:00 |
Brenda Simon, California Western
Introduction of Panel 2 |
11:00–11:15 |
Tabrez Ebrahim, California Western
Patent Office as a Semicommons Data Governance Mechanism |
11:15–11:30 |
Mark Lin, Taipei University, School of Medicine
Medicine and AI |
11:30–11:45 |
Shaun Spalding, California Western
Implications of AI on the Future of Creative Careers |
11:45–12:00 |
Shelly Skinner, SDCBA Legal Ethics Committee
AI Ethics at Work |
12:00–12:15 |
James Cooper, California Western
International Relations and AI |
12:15–12:30 |
Breakout #2 |
12:30–12:45 |
Break |
Panel #3: Bias & AI
Moderator: Tim Casey, California Western |
12:45–1:00 |
Homayra Yusufi, Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA)
Regulating AI through Community Organizing: San Diego Smart Streetlights |
1:00–1:15 |
Chris Goodman, Pepperdine University, School of Law
Systemic Bias in Symbolic Systems: Lawyers’ Roles in Promoting Justice |
1:15–1:30 |
Art Neill, California Western
IP Ownership and Artificial Intelligence
|
1:30–1:45 |
David Colarusso, Suffolk University, School of Law
Regulating AI through a New Lens |
1:45–2:00 |
Breakout #3 |
Speakers and Panelists
Sean M. Scott
President and Dean
California Western School of Law
Dean Scott’s academic interests include legal education, contracts, and disability rights. Her most recent article, Contractual Incapacity and the Americans with Disabilities Act, was published in the Dickinson Law Review and has been recognized by JOTWELL as one of the best works of recent scholarship in the areas of both contracts and elder law. Dean Scott speaks frequently on the topic of legal education and the diversification of the legal academy. She currently serves on the Board of Governors of SALT and has served as Associate Director of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
Dean Scott was previously senior associate dean and associate dean for faculty at Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, where she expanded legal education through a variety of innovative programs including a Master of Science in Legal Studies, the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Law program, and the Fashion Law Project.
Timothy Casey
Professor in Residence and Director of STEPPS
California Western School of Law
Professor Casey’s research interests include surveillance and civil liberties, problem solving courts, and experiential pedagogy. He serves on the Ethics Committee of the San Diego County Bar Association and as a board member for both local and international non-profit organizations.
Brenda Leong, CIPP/US
Senior Counsel and Director of Artificial Intelligence and Ethics
Future of Privacy Forum
Brenda Leong oversees development of privacy analysis of AI and Machine Learning technologies, manages the FPF portfolio on biometrics and digital identity, particularly facial recognition, along with the ethics challenges of these emerging systems. She works on industry standards and collaboration on privacy and responsible data management, by partnering with stakeholders and advocates to reach practical solutions for consumer and commercial data uses.
Joshua P. Davis
Professor, Director of the Center for Law and Ethics, and Dean’s Circle Scholar
University of San Francisco Law School
Professor Davis has focused his scholarly research in recent years on AI, ethics, and law. He is currently writing a book, "Unnatural Law: AI, Consciousness, Ethics, and Legal Philosophy" (forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2022/23).
W. Bradley Wendel
Edwin H. Woodruff Professor of Law
Cornell Law School
Professor Wendel’s teaching interests are in the regulation of the legal profession and torts, and his research focuses on the application of moral and political philosophy to problems of legal ethics.
Thomas D. Barton
Professor of Law and Co-Director, Center for Creative Problem Solving
California Western School of Law
In addition to teaching contracts law and problem-solving topics, Professor Barton’s interests in professional responsibility and forms of social control reflect his concerns for the social, historical, and intellectual contexts of law.
Lilly Irani
Associate Professor
UC San Diego
Broadly, Professor Lilly Irani’s research investigates the cultural politics of high-tech work practices with a focus on how actors produce “innovation” cultures. She is an ethnographer of work trained to analyze interactional, organizational, and cultural dynamics as mediated by technology. She also draws on her training as a computer scientist and designer to develop novel technical, organizational systems for contexts she studies. She specializes in the cultural politics of high-tech work in the context of South Asian development, as well global AI economies.
Brenda Simon
Professor of Law
California Western School of Law
Professor Simon’s research interests focus on how technological developments affect intellectual property and information law. She has published articles in both scientific journals and traditional law reviews, including the Northwestern University Law Review, Houston Law Review, Nature Biotechnology, and Science, among others.
Tabrez Y. Ebrahim
Associate Professor of Law
California Western School of Law
Professor Ebrahim’s primary scholarship concerns law and technology, entrepreneurship and business law, and patent law. His research focuses on the intersection of business, law, and technology, with a particular emphasis on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital platforms.
Ming-Chin “Mark” Lin, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Medical Informatics and Director of AI and Robotic Arm Surgery, Shuang-Ho Hospital
Taipei Medical University
Mark (Ming-Chin) Lin serves as Attending Physician in the Neurosurgery Department of Shuang-Ho Hospital at Taipei Medical University and holds an appointment as Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan. His research is focused on building Smart Medical Information for Neuro Intensive Care (MiNiC), which is a large, single-center database comprising information relating to patients admitted to critical care units. The database supports applications including academic and industrial research, quality improvement initiatives, and higher education coursework.
Shaun Spalding
Assistant Director, New Media Rights
California Western School of Law
Shaun Spalding serves as Assistant Director of the New Media Rights Clinic at California Western School of Law. He is an intellectual property and privacy attorney with an interest in digital entertainment transactions, data-sharing agreements, and licensing. He has represented a handful of the top-40 most watched and most subscribed to YouTube channels in the world.
Shelly C. Skinner
Shelly C. Skinner holds appointments on the San Diego County Bar Association's Legal Ethics Committee and Technology Committee and is a member of Legal Services Corporation's Emerging Leaders Council. A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Ms. Skinner served as a federal attorney for 12 years, working on traditional labor law cases and ethics matters. She is now working on increasing access to justice through technology.
James Cooper
Associate Dean for Experiential Learning and Professor of Law
Director, International Legal Studies Program
California Western School of Law
After more than two decades of disruption work in the legal sectors of Latin America, Associate Dean Cooper’s work has recently focused on the legal regulation of emerging technologies. He co-founded the One World Blockchain Alliance, a network that debuted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland; has been an advisor to blockchain companies in Asia and North America; writes a column for Coindesk; and is a member of the Protocol Braintrust.
Homayra Yusufi
Deputy Director
Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans (PANA)
As deputy director of PANA, Homayra Yusufi works closely with the Executive Director to advance the mission and goals of the organization. She leads the team of organizers and advocates with a community-driven approach to advance policies that directly impact refugee communities. Ms. Yusufi has more than a decade of experience protecting the civil rights of immigrants, refugees, and Muslim communities.
Christine Chambers Goodman
Professor of Law
Caruso School of Law, Pepperdine
Professor Goodman writes on equal protection topics, including implicit bias, affirmative action, preferences, diversity and racial privacy, as well as evidentiary and criminal law issues, such as the lack of transparency in the death penalty decision-making process in California and medical privacy.
Art Neill
Executive Director, New Media Rights
California Western School of Law
Art Neill is the founder and Executive Director of New Media Rights. He specializes in internet, intellectual property, privacy, and media law, and teaches Internet & Social Media Law as well as the Internet & Media Law Clinic at California Western School of Law. He writes about legal issues for creators and small businesses as a contributor for Forbes.
David Colarusso
Practitioner-in-Residence and Director of the Legal Innovation and Technology Lab
Suffolk University School of Law
David Colarusso is the Director of Suffolk University Law School's Legal Innovation and Technology Lab. An attorney and educator by training, he has worked as a public defender, data scientist, software engineer, and high school physics teacher. He is the author of a programming language for lawyers, QnA Markup, an award winning legal hacker, ABA Legal Rebel, and Fastcase 50 honoree.