TECHNOLOGY LAW & POLICY CENTER

North Carolina Central University Technology Law & Policy Center held its inaugural Law and Technology Summit October 14-15, 2022, to officially launch the center. The two-day hybrid summit brought together some of the industry’s top legal experts, policy advocates and technologists from around the country. The summit consisted of a series of keynote speeches, presentations and panel discussions designed to examine issues and current developments in law and technology, including artificial intelligence, data privacy, cybersecurity, tech policy and legal services regulatory reform. The summit also provided an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students who have received law and technology-related scholarships and awards and to acknowledge the contributions of the late Browne C. Lewis.

Executive Director

Attorney Diane Littlejohn ‘10 is the executive director of the Tech Law and Policy Center. In addition to helping run the center, she teaches a course on the intersection of law practice and technology. Outside of teaching and directing the center, Littlejohn practices trademark law and business information contracts. Littlejohn joined the North Carolina Bar Association Small Firm and Technology Group and serves as a board member. In September 2022, Littlejohn presented at the HBCU Technology Conference on AI and Facial Recognition Technologies. She served as a moderator on the NFT (non-fungible tokens) panel for the NCCU Technology Law and Policy Summit held in October 2022. Littlejohn presented on two panels related to NFTs and the Metaverse at the ABA Tech show in March 2023.

Tech Law Fellow

Attorney Cedric A. Pickett ’18 is the Technology Law and Policy Center tech law fellow. His interests are data privacy, cybersecurity, and FinTech. Before attending law school, Pickett accumulated over a decade of experience in various capacities; addressing emerging technology at North Carolina State University, Schwab Performance Technologies, and KPIT (formally known as i-Cubed). Pickett received his undergraduate degree in Technology Education from NC State University. He also received his MBA and Juris Doctorate from North Carolina Central University. In 2020, he received his Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP/ US) certification from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). Pickett teaches Private Sector Privacy for students interested in data privacy, and interested in obtaining their CIPP/US certification.

Students who earn the Law & Technology Certificate Program would have completed classes and assignments that ensure that the student has (1) developed competence in the area of law practice technology/legal technology, and (2) studied a broad range of law of technology/technology law subjects, and engaged in an in-depth study in one or more technology law subjects.

INTEL SOCIAL JUSTICE & RACIAL EQUITY ENDOWED PROFESSOR OF LAW

Professor Kevin Lee joined NCCU School of Law as the Inaugural Social Justice & Racial Equity Endowed Chair on July 1, 2022. Prior to joining NCCU, Lee was a tenured, full professor at Campbell University, Norman A. Wiggins School of Law, where he taught corporate law, jurisprudence and computational law for 15 years. He was the founding director of Campbell Law Innovation Institute, and the founding chair of the North Carolina Bar Association Future of Law Committee. In 2017, he was recognized by Fastcase as one of the top 50 innovators. Lee was a law clerk to the Hon. Herbert J. Hutton, Jr., U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was a Foreign Office lawyer/associate with a large commercial law firm located in Tokyo, Japan. He holds advanced degrees in Social and Political Ethics from the Divinity School of The University of Chicago, from Colgate University in Philosophy and Religion, and he is a graduate of New York Law School. This academic year, Lee taught law tech-related courses, including Law, Ethics of AI and Policy; The Jurisprudence of AI; and Directed Research on a technologyrelated project for one student. Lee also teaches Business Associations. Lee has written several pieces, and is currently working on a book chapter titled “Teaching Antiracism While Teaching Legal Technology” for the Penn State/ Dickinson, Antiracist Law School Project.

LAW & TECHNOLOGY CERTIFICATE

NCCU School of Law is strongly committed to preparing students for the increasingly technology-driven legal industry, and in support of that mission, it has established the Law & Technology Certificate Program. The Law & Technology Certificate recognizes a student's successful completion of a focused course of technology and law study, including at least 15 credit hours of approved law and technologyrelated courses. Students who earn this Certificate would have completed classes and assignments that ensure that the student has (1) developed competence in the area of law practice technology/legal technology, and (2) studied a broad range of law of technology/ technology law subjects, and engaged in an in-depth study in one or more technology law subjects. Ten graduates from the class of 2023 are the first students to earn the Law & Technology Certificate — Cameron Benton, Michala Blue, Delany Davis, Brianna George, Paloma Magallanes, Kayla Mitchell, Keziah Opoku-frimpong, Kearra Richardson, Hillary Teoyotl and Moses Washington.

DATA PRIVACY & SECURITY SPECIALIZATION

The job market for data privacy professionals continues to grow, and the supply of data privacy professionals cannot meet the demand. Recognizing this need, the Technology Law & Policy Center has developed a Data Privacy and Security Specialization within the Law & Technology Certificate Program. This specialization includes courses, training and employment resources for students interested in data privacy and data security practices. NCCU School of Law has partnered with the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) to ensure our students receive discounts on IAPP resources under the IAPP Higher Education Student Discount Program. NCCU School of Law is also an Official Training Partner for the IAPP, and will be able to offer official IAPP training for attorneys interested in securing CIPP certification. Tech Law Fellow and attorney, Cedric Pickett, CIPP/ US, leads the TLPC Data Privacy & Security Specialization efforts.

LAW & TECHNOLOGY STUDENT ORGANIZATION

The Law & Technology Certificate students created the Law & Technology Student Organization in August 2022. The founding officers are Todd Ford Jr., president, Malcolm Lewis, vice president, Stephanie Lindor, director of communications, Kiarra Slay, treasurer and Kayla Mitchell, secretary. The newly established Law and Technology Student Organization was created to guide students in utilizing NCCU's resources in the legal technology field and to build a community of students and professors interested in the intersections of law and technology. The organization sponsors and organizes events for students and faculty interested in or learning more about legal technology and legal tech-related career paths.

Steven Parker ’05 was recently selected to serve as Chief Innovation Officer (CInO) for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in the Department of Homeland Security.

Steven and his team are charged with enhancing TSA’s innovation capacity by connecting, enabling and incorporating innovative technology and process ideas from passengers, employees and transportation industry partners, throughout TSA and the greater transportation security ecosystem.

Most recently Steven served as general counsel at Story Brand, a major brand and marketing company representing Fortune 500 companies, where he provided legal counsel to team members in the development of messaging for the company’s customers. Prior to his role at Story Brand, Steven served as the deputy state director for U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff. He was the senator’s liaison and primary point of contact for elected and community stakeholders throughout the state of Georgia. Steven has extensive experience leading strategic initiatives, as political director for the Ossoff for Senate Campaign; community specialist for the City of Raleigh, N.C.; community affairs manager for Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan; political director of the California No On Prop 38 Campaign; Southern California outreach coordinator for the California Complete Count Campaign; and as field representative for California State Senator Herschel Rosenthal.

Steven began his legal career in

2005 with the law firm of Balch & Bingham, LLP in Birmingham, Ala. During this time, he was the co-author of the American Bar Association (ABA) Tort Trial Insurance Practice Section’s Annual Survey of Recent Developments in Title Insurance Law, a regular presenter of National Business Institute seminars on title insurance principles, and was the first African American chair of the ABA Title Insurance Litigation Committee. Steven was an adjunct faculty member at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, where he taught an undergraduate course in trial advocacy, in conjunction with coaching the Samford University Mock Trial Team, and taught torts and real estate law in the Paralegal Studies Certification Program. His private sector experience includes serving as vice president and senior counsel with Fidelity National Title Group, the largest title insurance company in the United States, and as senior city attorney for the Mayor of Atlanta, which required negotiation and completion of multimillion dollar commercial real estate transactions.

Steven earned his bachelor’s from California State University, Northridge and his Juris Doctorate from NCCU School of Law, where he was on the trial team and took first place in the Michael Easley Closing Argument competition. He is a member in good standing of both the Georgia and Alabama Bars. Steven cultivates high level longterm relationships and innovative ideas that provide value to elected officials, non-elected officials, business leaders, community leaders and other stakeholders.