Historians have identified two economic upheavals that reshaped the world: the agricultural revolution and the industrial one. We are now living through a third such upheaval: an information/technology revolution that is remaking our lives and our world in ways every bit as profound as its predecessors. Stanford University and its law school, located in the heart of the Silicon Valley, lie at this revolution’s epicenter. And this issue of Stanford Lawyer touches on just a few of the myriad ways in which Stanford Law School has become the world’s premier place for teaching and scholarship about the legal dimensions of new technology and the astonishing, often perplexing, society it is creating.

Our importance in shaping that society is evident on the cover, which vividly portrays the central role of Stanford law alumni in the world of high-tech business—from William Neukom ’67, a pioneer at Microsoft, to David Drummond ’89, who helped bring Google into existence. Nor does Stanford’s dominance in the world of technology end in-house. Stanford alumni are also CEOs and managing partners of the leading law firms that serve the technology industry, including John Roos ’80 at Wilson, Sonsini; Gordon Davidson ’74 atFenwick & West; Stephen Neal ’73 at Cooley, Godward; Mary Cranston ’75 at Pillsbury, Winthrop; and many others.

There is a reason Stanford law graduates have risen to such prominence, and it has to do with more than location. The law school’s position as the unquestioned leader in law and tech-

nology rests on a substantive program that melds theoretical insight and practical experience in unique ways. That program begins with what is by far the best intellectual property faculty in the world, including John H. Barton ’68, international patent and technology law; Paul Goldstein, copyright and competition law; Henry T. “Hank” Greely (BA ’74), biotechnology, biomedical ethics, and health law; Mark A. Lemley (BA’88), patent, copyright, and antitrust law; Lawrence Lessig, cyberlaw, copyright, and constitutional law; and Margaret Jane Radin (BA ’63), e-commerce and property theory.

These faculty have extended their work and enlarged their influence by establishing centers and programs that bring scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world to work together and with our students. Under the umbrella of our flagship Program in Law, Science & Technology, directed by Professor Lemley, the law school also sponsors the Center for E-Commerce, directed by Professor Radin; the Center for Internet and Society, directed by Professor Lessig; the Center for Law and the Biosciences, directed by Professor Greely; and the Stanford Center for Computers and Law, a multidisciplinary research laboratory (the first of its kind) run jointly by the law school and the Department of Computer Science.

These centers hold conferences, symposia, and seminars; sponsor fellowships and speakers’ series; support cutting edge scholarship; and engage in important public policy and legislative work—making Stanford Law School an unparalleled hub of activity in the world of technology and the law. In addition, the Center for Internet and Society runs a clinic that offers Stanford law students the chance to work on litigation projects that are already reshaping the legal landscape.

Nor is our reach limited to the United States, as evidenced by the new Transatlantic Technology Law Forum, a joint venture with the University of Vienna School of Law that develops innovative solutions to European Union–United States technology law and policy challenges; and by the project to study intellectual property infrastructures in Asia. This project, guided by Professor Goldstein, teams Stanford students and scholars with students and scholars from Asia and from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property.

I cannot possibly do justice to all these flourishing activities, or even adequately describe them, in a short letter. But there is more, or rather more coming, for the law school has only just begun to explore ways in which to collaborate better with other parts of the university, including Stanford’s top-rated School of Engineering and School of Medicine, the multidisciplinary Bio-X initiative, and the new Department of Bioengineering. We are, for example, planning to create innovative courses that team law students with students from business and engineering to work through the process of creating a new product or company from invention to market. We are looking into the possibility of joint degrees with engineering, bioengineering,

and possibly medicine—degrees that could be modeled on our successful JD/MBA but completed in less time. And scholars and students from other parts of the university have begun talking to us about joint research and teaching.

With a year under my belt, I can report that I have loved being at Stanford Law School for the seriousness and integrity of the faculty and students and for the ambition and adventurousness of the university. Though ranked as one of the top universities in the world, this is not a place where people sit on their laurels or on tradition. Amazing things are going to happen here in the next decade, especially in law and technology. We want you to be part of them.