Mr. Johnson is a graduate of Yale College (B.A. 1967, summa cum laude) and Yale Law School (J.D. 1972). In addition, he completed a year of post graduate study at University College, Oxford (1968). Following graduation from law school, he clerked a year for Judge Malcolm R. Wilkey of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. Johnson joined Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1973 and became a partner in 1980.
Mr. Johnson recently retired as a partner of WCP. He is currently serving as Visiting Professor at New York Law School. He also devotes substantial time to the development of new types of “graphical groupware” software products. His previous legal practice focused primarily on the emerging area of electronic commerce, including counseling on issues relating to privacy, domain names and Internet governance issues, jurisdiction, copyright, taxation, electronic contracting, encryption, defamation, privacy, ISP and OSP liability, and intellectual property. He helped to write the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, was involved in discussions leading to the Framework for Global Electronic Commerce, and has been active in the introduction of personal computers in law practice.
Mr. Johnson served as founding director of the Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project and as founding president, CEO, and chairman of Counsel Connect, an online meeting place for the legal profession. He also was a founder and has served as co director of the Cyberspace Law Institute. Mr. Johnson has served on the boards of directors of the National Center for Automated Information Research and the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction. He is a co founder of the Law Practice Technology Roundtable and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Mr. Johnson has served on the Board, as a policy fellow, and as chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Mr. Johnson’s writings include: “Regulation and the Political Process,” co authored with Lloyd N. Cutler, 84 Yale Law Journal 1395 (June 1975); “Law and Borders — The Rise of Law in Cyberspace,” co authored with David G. Post, 48 Stanford Law Review 1367 (May 1996) (1997 McGannon Award); “And How Shall the Net Be Governed?” and “The New Civic Virtue of the Internet,” both co authored with David G. Post and available at www.cli.org. His work on the legal issues posed by cyberspace has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
