Kit Walsh
Clinical Instructional Fellow
Cyberlaw Clinic
The laws that govern information are the laws that govern how we express ourselves, make sense of the world, and debate the course of our society. I specialize in this area because I am an activist at heart. I love helping individual clients protect their rights to speak and associate freely and I’m also very proud of our impact work helping courts understand how to protect constitutional rights and values in the context of new technology.
This semester, my docket is particularly heavy with a variety of activist and scholarly organizations who need legal help in order to launch or preserve their online platforms. With regard to high-profile matters I’m working on, there is a “patent troll” asserting that no one can distribute episodic audio content over the Internet without their permission (for example, newscasts, radio drama, or talk shows).
We are working to invalidate their “podcast patent” and protect the medium they are threatening. In terms of recent results, the Supreme Judicial Court agreed with us just last month that a warrant is required for police to track your location using your cell phone, which again is part of my work to maintain a wholesome relationship between the state and its people.
I love the incredible variety of subject matter that I get to touch upon and the variety of viewpoints brought to very challenging, novel issues by my students and colleagues. Our broad range of practice areas and expertise lets us respond to emerging issues and help to shape the law, and engage students in thinking about the public interest aspects of the law governing information.
For fun, I play collaborative story games with friends, make exotic smores, entertain my two cats, agitate for social justice, and try at least one new thing every month. This past month was a high-ropes obstacle course.