Jack Lerner

Clinical Professor of Law, University of California Irvine School of Law | Exploring Options: Legal and Ethical Considerations When Obtaining Life Story Rights

Jack Lerner is Clinical Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law. At UCI Law, he directs the UCI Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic, where students counsel and represent filmmakers, journalists, artists, policymakers, innovators, organizations, and entrepreneurs on a range of IP and technology issues. Professor Lerner's scholarship focuses on problems at the intersection of law and technology, particularly how technology law and policy affect innovation and creative expression. He has written and spoken widely on copyright, privacy and other areas of technology law. He regularly works with filmmakers and nationwide filmmaker organizations, has written and spoken widely on copyright law and documentary filmmaking, and is a nationally known expert on the fair use doctrine in copyright. He is a board member of the International Documentary Association and has twice been a trustee of the Los Angeles Copyright Society.

Professor Lerner received a B.A., with distinction, in English from the University of Kansas and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge Fred I. Parker on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge G. Thomas Van Bebber in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

In 2016, Professor Lerner was awarded the California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” award for his work obtaining two exemptions to the copyright laws that affect documentary filmmakers and authors nationwide.