Technology supports most human endeavors and, as a result, offers both significant benefits and real, lasting harms. Therefore, the Cyberlaw Clinic’s work, teaching activities, and client selection decisions are animated by its core values.
Specifically, the Clinic seeks to promote:
- a robust and inclusive online ecosystem for free expression and broad participation in public discourse;
- awareness of power differentials and bias in technologies and socio-technical systems, mitigation of their negative impacts, and — where harm has occurred — the provision of adequate remedies;
- equity and inclusion as necessary considerations throughout technology development and technology policy;
- respect for and protection of privacy, vis-à-vis both private and government actors;
- access to knowledge and information, including through open government and transparency with respect to public and private technical systems that impact citizens (and, in particular, members of vulnerable populations); and
- the advancement of cultural production through efficient and balanced regulatory and enforcement regimes.
The Cyberlaw Clinic balances its legal service mission with a mission to teach law students, and education and pedagogy are at the heart of the Clinic’s day-to-day operations. Students are involved in every aspect of client service, from client development to intake and retention to representation and advising, all under the supervision of licensed attorneys. Students also help the Clinic to identify and understand important new issue areas and thus expand its practice.