David Johnson
- Non-residential Fellow, Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution
- Pronouns: he/him
Biography
David has been teaching at SLS annually since 2006, in conjunction with his full-time practice of law in Silicon Valley. As of 2015 he also became a Lecturer at the Hasso Plattner School of Design at Stanford (a/k/a “the d.school”), researching and teaching at the intersection of law and design. In 2025, he was a Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore Law Faculty.
David’s legal career began in the courtroom, with several dozen first-chair trials and appeals. He was lead counsel before the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of the Florida Motion Picture & Television Association, challenging the prima facie constitutionality of a proposed sales tax on commercial speech. Later, he was appointed a Special Deputy AG for the State of Washington to argue before the Alaska Supreme Court.
In Silicon Valley he has been General Counsel for public, private and non-profit companies. He has testified before the California Assembly and the House Subcommittee on Science and Technology on software issues, and as an expert witness on intellectual property in United States District Court. His thesis for the JSM at SLS explored the applicability of software design methodologies to law- and policy-making.
Education
- AB, Carleton College
- JD, University of Miami School of Law
- JSM, Law Science and Technology Stanford Law School