First-class academicians and practitioners

Dr. Stefan Dittmer is Partner at Dentons. He advises companies on all aspects of intellectual property law, including licensing, with a focus on technology, media and digitization. He represents clients in disputes relating to unfair competition, copyright, trademarks, patents and designs, and in general commercial disputes before courts of law and arbitral tribunals.

Michael Friedman studied law at the University of California at Berkeley before later practicing as an attorney in the San Francisco Bay area as public defender. In addition to having served as an external lecturer at Bucerius since 2006, he has instructed on negotiation in various settings, including at the Universities of Graz and Innsbruck as well as at the GISMA Business School in Hannover. He has lived in Hamburg since 2004 where he works with the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. 

Daniel M. Katz is a scientist, technologist and law professor who applies an innovative polytechnic approach to teaching law—to help create lawyers for today's biggest societal challenges. He is Academic Director of the Center for Legal Technology and Data Science at Bucerius Law School and the Director of the Law Lab at Chicago-Kent College of Law (Illinois Institute of Technology).

He is co-director of the Bucerius Summer Program in AI, Legal Technology and Operations.

Both his scholarship and teaching integrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Professor Katz teaches Practice & Professionalism, E-Discovery, Legal Analytics, Legal Project Management + Legal Process Improvement and Civil Procedure at Chicago-Kent.

Linda Kuschel holds the Junior Professorship for Civil Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Law and Digitalization since June 2019. She studied law at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg. After her First State Exam in 2010, she completed her legal traineeship in Berlin (Second State Exam in 2012). In 2014 she received her LL.M.-degree from Harvard University and in 2018 her doctorate at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin with a dissertation on "The Acquisition of Digital Copies of a Work for Private Use". She was a research assistant to Prof. Dr. Katharina de la Durantaye, LL.M. (Yale) at Humboldt-Universität Berlin from June 2012 to June 2013 and from July 2014 to March 2018. From April 2018 until her appointment to Bucerius Law School, she worked for the Humboldt Law Clinic Internetrecht under the direction of Prof. Dr. Axel Metzger, LL.M. (Harvard).

Jacek Lagoni supports Google Cloud and online advertising products as an Associate Legal Counsel at Google. He focuses on negotiations of complex deals and contract drafting in the areas of IT law and data protection law.

Philipp is Counsel in the Freshfields M&A and Commercial/IP practices with a focus on complex operational contracts as well as all questions concerning intellectual property and information technology law in the context of cross-border transactions. He regularly advises international clients on complex collaborations and joint ventures as well as the structuring of multi-jurisdiction carve-outs and technology focused corporate transactions and is experienced in drafting and negotiating a wide range of complex commercial contracts, in particular in the Pharma/Biotech sector. Philipp has advised many of the firm’s Pharma and Biotech clients on strategic licensing deals and other collaborations, including BioNTech on its collaboration with Pfizer regarding the vaccine program to prevent COVID-19.

Allison is the Head of the IP Commercialization Section at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Building on her experience as an intellectual property attorney for a Fortune 500 company and an inventor, her team empowers enterprises, innovators, and creators to maximize their potential through the creation and commercialization of IP. She has worked with more than 50 countries to develop their legislative frameworks and support businesses through their creativity and ingenuity.

Tal Niv joined UC Law SF in 2024 as the Director of Applied Innovation, where she is responsible for advancing the law school’s ambition to be a premier educational hub for the next generation of technology lawyers.

Before joining UC Law SF, Tal held significant roles such as General Counsel, Vice President of Law and Policy, and Deputy General Counsel at prominent organizations including GitHub, PlanetScale, and Creative Commons. Her previous experience also includes working as a technologist in various tech startups. In these capacities, Tal explored pivotal Law & Technology issues, providing expert insights and contributing to academic and policy discussions in both the US and EU. This deep engagement has equipped her with a profound understanding of the legal environment’s impact on innovation and creativity, and a strong drive to develop legal and regulatory frameworks optimized for technological advancements.

Furthermore, she has cultivated a nuanced understanding of delivering legal services to innovators in uncertain regulatory landscapes. Tal has effectively leveraged this expertise in her Internet and Artificial Intelligence courses at UC Law SF over the past few years.

Tal is enthusiastic about training the best technology lawyers to serve innovative tech companies and is passionate about the center’s vital role in the Bay Area’s law and technology community. She takes pride in her contributions to thought leadership on tech law and policy, the adaptation of legal frameworks to meet emerging technology challenges, and shaping the future of legal education and the legal profession.

Prof. Dr. Ritlewski is Of Counsel at Orth Kluth in Berlin and a professor at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. He focuses his practice on litigation and strategic advice in all fields of IP law, unfair competition and media law. Prof. Ritlewski has written several publications on Intellectual Property Law and Policy, Media Regulation and International Arbitration.

Lezel directs the Foreign Language Communication Program at Bucerius. In addition to being a Qualified English Language Teacher accredited through the University of Cambridge, she is also a Qualified Lawyer in South Africa and member of the Cape Law Society. She is a part-time lecturer at the Macromedia University for Media and Communication in the area of Media Law and IP Law.

Dr. Darius Rostam, LL.M. (NYU) is an associate at CMS Hasche Sigle in Hamburg. He advises domestic and international clients on copyright and media law. He holds an LL.M. from New York University and a PhD in Copyright Law from the University of Trier.

Stefan Papastefanou advises domestic and international clients in the areas of intellectual property (IP), especially patent law and licensing, information technology (IT), with a focus on data protection as well as the law of trade secrets and know-how.

Greta Sparzynski studied law at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and at the University of Sheffield, UK. She gained practical experience at KNPZ Rechtsanwälte, a law firm specializing in intellectual property law. Currently, she is working as a research assistant at the Center for Transnational IP, Media and Technology Law and Policy and is writing her doctoral thesis on copyright law.

Christian joined Hogan Lovells in 2001 and is a partner in the Hamburg office. He is specialized in intellectual property matters with a particular focus on patents, trademarks, unfair competition and license agreements.

Karsten Thorn received a doctorate in law at the University of Trier. In February 2004, he completed his post-doctoral thesis on the "Coordination of Private Legal Systems through the Application of Foreign Conflicts Law," as well as with an audition lecture on "Bearing of Risk after the Cancellation of Contract" at the University of Trier. Later that year, Thorn accepted the chair of Civil Law, Private International and International Commercial Law and Comparative Law at Bucerius Law School.

Dr. Westpfahl is a Certified Specialist in Intellectual Property Law and partner at ROSE & PARTNER. She advises national and international companies on all aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and IP and IT related contracts, such as license agreements, research and development agreements as well as IP assignment and transfer agreements. Her practice also includes drafting and negotiating distribution contracts.

Thomas Vinje is Special Counsel at Clifford Chance. He is specialised in European antitrust and intellectual property law, with a particular focus on technology issues.

He advises major corporations on all areas of antitrust law, including merger control, dominance and cartel cases, and cases involving the interface between competition and IP law.

Thomas Vinje is a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) to the European Commission on unilateral conduct matters.

He speaks regularly on European Union intellectual property and antitrust law and has authored numerous articles and book contributions on these topics. He lectures at the Universities of Amsterdam and Zurich and sits on the Board of Editors for "Computer und Recht International" and "European Intellectual Property Review".

Thomas is a member of Clifford Chance's global Antitrust Risk team.