Chris Conley

Chris Conley

Lecturer and Clinical Instructor


BSE, The University of Michigan
SM, MIT
JD, Harvard Law School


Biography

Christopher Conley is a lecturer and clinical instructor in the BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic. Prior to joining BU, Conley spent over a decade as a technology policy attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, where he engaged in legislative advocacy, litigation, and public education on issues including privacy, surveillance, and free expression and their intersection with emerging technology. Conley has also been engaged as a consultant by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU and Amnesty International USA. Before pursuing a legal career, he was a software developer and electrical engineer with employers ranging from Intel to New York City Center, an off-Broadway theater. Conley holds a JD from Harvard Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology and after graduating, he was a student fellow at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society. Conley also earned an SM in Computer Science from MIT and a BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. 

Publications

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  • National Telecommunications and Information Administration: Comments from Researchers at Boston University and the University of Chicago Boston University School of Law Research Paper Series (2023)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Chris Conley, Matthew Cagle, Peter Bibring, Jessica Farris, Linda Lye, Mitra Ebadolahi & Nicole Ozer, Making Smart Decisions About Surveillance: A Guide for Communities (2014)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Chris Conley, Metadata: Piecing Together a Privacy Solution (2014)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Chris Conley, Nicole Ozer, Hari O'Connell, Ellen Ginsburg & Tamar Gubins, Location-Based Services: Time for a Privacy Check-In (2010)
    Scholarly Commons
  • Nicole Ozer & Chris Conley, Cloud Computing: Storm Warning for Privacy? (2010)
    Scholarly Commons

Stories from The Record

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Activities & Engagements

No upcoming activities or engagements.

Courses

LAW JD 673

Law & Algorithms

3 credits

This cross-cutting and interdisciplinary course, taught alongside a graduate-level course with BU's new faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, investigates the role that algorithms and automated decision-making systems play in law and society. The course connects legal and technical concepts of transparency, fairness, bias, privacy, and trust, though a series of case studies that present recent applications of technology to legal and regulatory situations and explore the challenges in regulating algorithms. Legal concepts explored will include evidence and expert witnesses, anti-discrimination law concepts of disparate impact and disparate treatment, sectoral information privacy regimes, and public access and transparency laws. Technical concepts explored will include artificial intelligence and machine learning, secure multi-party computation, differential privacy, and zero-knowledge proofs. Grades will be based on a series of assignments that correspond with each case study, to be completed collaboratively in mixed teams of law and computing/data science students. No prior technology experience is required. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option.


FALL 2026: LAW JD 673 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Mon 2:10 pm 4:10 pm 3 Chris ConleyCanetti
LAW JD 869

SILC: Privacy, Health & Media Seminar 2

2 credits

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Privacy, Health & Media Seminar 2 students in SILC's Privacy, Health & Media Practice Group expand upon the legal and practice issues reviewed in the fall seminar, including issues in consumer privacy; sectoral privacy in health, finance, and education; cybersecurity and breach response; and FDA regulation of information technology and devices. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.


SPRG 2027: LAW JD 869 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Tue 2:10 pm 4:10 pm 2 Chris ConleyVictoria Tang
LAW JD 866

SILC: Privacy, Health and Media Seminar 1

2 credits

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Privacy, Health & Media Seminar 1 students in SILC's Privacy, Health & Media Practice Group meet to review substantive legal issues in information privacy, cybersecurity, and health law and how they relate to SILC's practice, including issues in consumer privacy; sectoral privacy in health, finance, and education; cybersecurity and breach response; and FDA regulation of information technology and devices. The seminar will also introduce students to the lawyering skills (including interviewing, counseling, negotiation, drafting, etc.) that will help them in counseling MIT and BU students on their creative and innovative projects. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.


FALL 2026: LAW JD 866 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
Tue 2:10 pm 4:10 pm 2 Chris ConleyVictoria Tang
LAW JD 725

Student Innovations Law Clinic: Fieldwork

4 credits

THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. The clinic provides counseling in a variety of different areas of law, organized into three practice groups: (1) Intellectual Property; (2) Privacy, Health & Media; and (3) Venture & Finance. Representation of clients can include client counseling, contract and policy drafting and review, negotiation with third parties, and, if capacity allows, litigation and other dispute resolution. CO-REQUISITE: If students have not done so already, students must take at least one course in any one of the following four areas: (1) intellectual property (either an IP survey course or other core IP course such as patent, copyright, trademark, or trade secret); (2) privacy (including information privacy law or information risk management); (3) cybersecurity; or (4) corporations. NOTE: The Technology Law Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.


FALL 2026: LAW JD 725 A1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Chris ConleyVictoria Tang
FALL 2026: LAW JD 725 B1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Ari LipsitzJef Pearlman
FALL 2026: LAW JD 725 C1, Aug 31st to Dec 3rd 2026
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Vivian EtterTom Patten
SPRG 2027: LAW JD 725 A1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Chris ConleyVictoria Tang
SPRG 2027: LAW JD 725 B1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Ari LipsitzJef Pearlman
SPRG 2027: LAW JD 725 C1, Jan 11th to Apr 21st 2027
Days Start End Credits Instructors Bldg Room
ARR 12:00 am 12:00 am 4 Vivian EtterTom Patten