About Dave
David S. Levine is a Professor of Law at Elon University School of Law and an Affiliate Scholar at the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) at Stanford Law School. From 2014-2017, Dave was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy.
Dave’s scholarship, which has been published in a variety of law reviews including Florida, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Oxford J. of IP Law, Stanford Online, and Wake Forest, focuses on the operation of intellectual property law at the intersection of technology and public life, specifically information flows in the lawmaking and regulatory process and intellectual property law’s impact on public and private secrecy, transparency and accountability. He is an acknowledged leader in trade secret law advocacy, and has spoken about his work in numerous venues, from the American Political Science Association annual meeting to the Information Society Project at Yale Law School, and internationally. His current project focuses on Covid-19 vaccines and trade secret law.
Active in policy analysis, he has made presentations to the negotiators at several negotiating rounds for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), testified before the Library of Congress, briefed the Senate Judiciary Committee staff on trade secret law, co-authored influential law professors’ letters regarding the TPP, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Defend Trade Secrets Act (DTSA), and was a member of the North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission’s Protection of Trade Secret and Proprietary Information Study Group that was tasked with writing the state’s hydraulic fracturing regulations.
He is the co-author, with Sharon Sandeen, of Information Law, Governance, and Cybersecurity (West Publishing 2019). Having been interviewed and quoted in many media outlets, from NPR to the Los Angeles Times to the Washington Post, Dave was a regular contributor to Slate, and has blogged at American University Law School’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property blog (infojustice.org) and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy blog freedomtotinker.com.
He was previously a resident fellow at CIS, legislative aide in the New York State Assembly, assistant corporation counsel for the City of New York and in private practice in Manhattan where he worked for entertainment industry clients. He holds a BS in industrial and labor relations from Cornell University and a JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.
Media
In addition to his scholarship, Dave founded, hosts and produces a weekly technology and intellectual property law interview radio show entitled Hearsay Culture (that’s where you are now!) Hearsay Culture is heard on KZSU-FM (Stanford University), and can be found as a podcast on iTunes, CIS’ website, and the website for the show, hearsayculture.com (which is where you are now). Since its founding in May 2006, Hearsay Culture has received very favorable (and unsolicited) reviews on blogs and technology websites including ZDNet (“Some of the best discussion I’ve heard to date (and certainly recently) about the economics of intellectual property in the technological era . . .”), Concurring Opinions (listing the show as one of the author’s six favorite podcasts of 2007), and Technology Liberation Front (reviewing interview with Prof. Richard Epstein, and author noting that it is “one of [his] favorite podcasts”).
Additionally, in December 2008, Hearsay Culture was listed in the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Journal’s Blawg 100 of 2008, as one of the “top 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers.” Specifically, Hearsay Culture was selected by the editors as one of the top five in the new podcast category. Hearsay Culture was also listed as one of 10 podcasts that are “essential for legal professionals” in an October 10, 2008 article by Robert J. Ambrogi of Law Technology News entitled “Ten Legal Podcasts to Keep You Informed.”
Dave is a regular contributor to Slate, and blogs at American University Law School’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property blog infojustice.org and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy blog freedomtotinker.com. Dave has been quoted in articles in newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and appeared on CNBC, spoken at many intellectual property and cyberlaw conferences, and testified before the Library of Congress’ National Recording Preservation Board.
More information can be found here.
Education and Professional Experience
After earning a bachelor of science degree from Cornell University’s New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations in 1994, Dave was the Legislative Aide for the Hon. Sandy Galef, New York State Assemblywoman; additionally, he was the volunteer Field Director for the New York State chapter of Concord Coalition, with which he remains involved. During law school, Dave was a summer extern for the Hon. Adlai S. Hardin, United States Bankruptcy Judge in the Southern District of New York.
Upon graduating from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Dave practiced law in Manhattan as an associate in the litigation departments of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf LLP (formerly Lane & Mittendorf LLP) and thereafter Pryor Cashman Sherman & Flynn LLP. At Pryor Cashman, Dave worked on a variety of cases in the intellectual property and technology litigation fields for several entertainment and fashion industry clients. Dave was also an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the New York City Law Department, Office of the Corporation Counsel. In the transition from practice to teaching, Dave was a Resident Fellow at CIS.
Contact
Dave can be reached at dave@hearsayculture.com.
Dave finds it a bit obnoxious to write in the third person, but finds it stranger still to keep saying “I” into the ether. Thus, Dave will choose, from these two bad options, the third person.