William McGeveran
- Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett Professor of Law
Degrees
- Carleton College, B.A.
- New York University, J.D.
Expertise
- Business Law
- Civil Procedure
- Data Security
- Intellectual Property
- Internet Law
Professor William McGeveran specializes in information law, including data privacy, intellectual property, communications and technology, and free speech. His scholarship focuses on legal and other rules governing digital identity and privacy, ranging from online impersonation to data security to social media. Additional aspects of his research include modernizing trademark law, comparing European and American approaches to data protection, and evaluating techniques used by privacy regulators.
McGeveran is the sole author of a casebook, Privacy and Data Protection Law, used by instructors at dozens of law schools, and he regularly teaches a data privacy course at Minnesota Law. He also teaches Trademark Law, Civil Procedure I and II, and Law in Practice. McGeveran served as Minnesota Law’s associate dean for academic affairs from 2018-2022. He has been a resident fellow at the University of Minnesota Institute of Advanced Study and a visiting professor at University College Dublin School of Law, and he is an affiliated professor at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
He frequently uses Twitter (as @BillMcGev), comments in the media, works with policymakers, and teaches continuing education courses. He belongs to the advisory boards for the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Future of Privacy Forum, and served as the first reporter for the Uniform Law Commission’s Uniform Personal Data Protection Act.
McGeveran earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from New York University and a B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from Carleton College. Prior to coming to the University of Minnesota in 2006, McGeveran was a resident fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. He previously clerked for Judge Sandra Lynch on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and practiced as an intellectual property litigator at Foley Hoag LLP in Boston. Before law school, McGeveran worked in national politics for seven years, including as a senior legislative aide to then-Rep. Charles Schumer. He grew up in New York City and still roots for the Yankees.