TechLaw Faculty

Our justice system is filled with imperfections: insufficient or ineffective legal counsel, barriers to entry, power imbalances, and so much more. Technology has the potential to mitigate these imperfections. But whether it will expand or contract access to justice remains to be seen.

For now, we are left with a number of unanswered questions: Who is ensuring that technological innovations are user-friendly to those with limited language or literacy? Who is considering populations that, because of lack of access to technology, will be excluded from a constitutionally-guaranteed right to civil legal access in the digital age?

The Innovation for Justice program, led by Stacy Rupprecht Jane, exposes students to the current reality of the justice gap, educates students about the power of technology and innovation to close that gap, and empowers students to be disruptive problem-solvers in the changing world of legal services. Students work across disciplines and with government, private and community partners, implementing design thinking and systems thinking to create new models of legal empowerment.  

There is a large and growing need for a well-trained regulatory science workforce to advance the translation of research into clinical interventions.

The Regulatory Science program provides specialized training through an online, year-round curriculum of seven courses, including a speaker series that brings in internationally renowned experts in the field. This coursework reflects strategic collaborations between Arizona Law and the Critical Path Institute (an organization created in partnership with the Food and Drug Administration), NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Compassionate Use Pre-approval Access Group, International Society for Cardiovascular Translational Research, and the University of Arizona Colleges of Pharmacy and Public Health.

The courses primarily focus on how to accelerate the development of medical products (drugs, devices, and diagnostics) through greater understanding of the ethics, policies and regulations governing regulatory science in the United States and abroad. They attract current and the next generation of advocates, regulators, scientists and clinicians, and help them make an impact in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.

University of Arizona Law is a leader in the emerging field of law and data—or quantlaw—which applies quantitative and statistical findings to legal problems and measures the law as a treatment with observable outcomes.

The cross-disciplinary QuantLaw program features faculty from around the University of Arizona and, in an annual invitation-only workshop, from around the country, who conduct cutting-edge empirical legal research and the opportunity to learn from rising leaders. Programs have engaged other faculty from virtually every college at the university, bringing their empirical approaches to the law.

For students, QuantLaw means a focus on empirical methods, so they can use and understand the data that shapes their professions. This builds on longstanding links to other departments, including psychology and government and public policy. A multi-disciplinary lab model, including close partnerships with various government entities, might be used to create a distinct pathway for education, research, employment, and policy impacts. 

Security has long been a central concern for stable, just and prosperous societies. All the more so in the digital age. Security matters to governments, as any reading of the daily headlines suggests, and it implicates international law and national security concerns. But it is also an everyday concern for businesses, nonprofits and individuals. Data security is increasingly a prerequisite for other values, like privacy and autonomy.

Cybersecurity implicates international law, criminal law, national security law and more. It is a concern for governments but also, increasingly, businesses, nonprofits and individuals. 

University of Arizona Law faculty teach a number of security-minded courses. Students may also enroll in cybersecurity courses in the UA Eller College of Management's Department of Management Information Sciences, home to one of the top cybersecurity programs in the world.

The TechLaw approach to privacy is different from the standard higher education treatment. We critically examine the concrete effects that privacy laws will have on consumers and society, in a search for pragmatic solutions.

University of Arizona Law offers one of the nation’s hubs for privacy law coursework, externships and research. Faculty members Jane Bambauer, Jason Kreag, Andrew Keane Woods and Derek Bambauer have written extensively about the regulation of personal data and surveillance technologies, and the college regularly works with faculty and teaching fellows in other departments to provide cutting-edge classes, projects and research opportunities. 

University of Arizona Law is home to a comprehensive Intellectual Property program that includes full and varied IP curriculum, ample practical training opportunities, leading scholarship, a legal journal, active student participation and unique community programs.

The Intellectual Property Clinic has counseled scores of businesses on securing, maintaining, protecting and enforcing IP rights and has secured client patents through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It is one of a select group of IP Clinics included in the USPTO's Law School Certification Program, meaning qualified students can practice before the USPTO. The clinic, operating as the Arizona Public Patent Program, is also the designated hub for the State of Arizona for the USPTO's Pro Bono Program.

Professor Derek Bambauer's scholarship covers intellectual property, internet censorship and cybersecurity.