Faculty

PETER JASZI | FOUNDER & PROFESSOR EMERITUS

Peter Jaszi is a Professor Emeritus at American University Washington College of Law, who writes and lectures about copyright law in historical and cultural contexts. He was a founder of the school’s Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic and its Program on Intellectual Property and Information Justice. Having served as a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., Professor Jaszi remains a member of its journal’s editorial board. During 1993, Professor Jaszi served as a member of the Librarian of Congress’s Committee on Copyright Registration and Deposit, and from 1994 to 2000, he was a principle organizer of the Digital Future Coalition. Since 2005, he has been working with Prof. Patricia Aufderheide to help creative communities develop fair use guidance documents that reflect their particular problems and practices. A new edition of their book, Reclaiming Copyright, was published in 2018 by the University of Chicago Press. In 2007, Professor Jaszi received the American Library Association’s L. Ray Patterson Copyright Award.

VICTORIA PHILLIPS | DIRECTOR & PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE OF LAW

Victoria Phillips is the Director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic. She came to the law school in 2001 to help establish the clinic and also teaches communications and intellectual property law. She also helped to create the law school’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP.) She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts. Before teaching, she practiced IP and communications law at Wiley, Rein and served as counsel to the National Endowment for Humanities and the Federal Communications Commission. Her scholarship and advocacy explores the dynamic changes taking place in IP and information policy and the challenging public interest issues raised by these developments. She has published several articles and speaks regularly on the history of pro bono IP and the growing IP and Technology law school clinical community. She serves as  faculty advisor to the Communications and Media Law Society.  In 2008, she was a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown Law and Acting Director of the Institute of Public Representation’s First Amendment and Media Law Clinic. In May, 2015 she was appointed by the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to serve a two year term on the agency’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Phillips was recently honored with the 2024 D.C Bar Champion of IP Award.

Victoria Phillips, Sea Change: The Rising Tide of Pro Bono Legal Services for the Creative Community, IP Theory: Vol. 9 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. (2020). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3670838

Victoria Phillips, Intellectual Property Law Gets Experienced, 59 IDEA: The IP Law Review, 249 (2018). SSRN

Victoria Phillips & Cynthia L. Dahl, Innovation and Tradition: A Survey of Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinics, 25 Clinical L. Rev. 95 (Fall 2018). SSRN

MATTHEW WILLIAMS | PRACTITIONER-IN-RESIDENCE

Matthew Williams is a Practitioner-in-Residence in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic. Prior to joining American University Washington College of Law’s faculty, Matthew was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of an L.A.-based law firm. His primary practice included representing trade associations of large copyright owners and litigating cases for their member companies, songwriters, directors, production companies, authors, screenwriters, recording artists, and producers. Billboard Magazine named Matthew a “Top Music Lawyer.”

In addition to his law firm experience, Matthew has served as the Co-Chair of the DC Chapter of the Copyright Society of the USA, the Participation Coordinator for the ICANN Intellectual Property Constituency, and an Adjunct Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He is a member of the Copyright Alliance Academic Advisory Board, the Recording Academy, the Order of the Coif, and the District of Columbia and New York bars.

Matthew is a magna cum laude graduate of the American University Washington College of Law. He is a Master of Fine Arts candidate in the Bennington College Writing Seminars. He completed the Fashion Law Bootcamp at Fordham’s Fashion Law Institute.

Matthew’s scholarship has focused on copyright’s fair use doctrine, philosophical approaches to exclusive rights, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and moral rights.

Areas of Specialization

Clinical Legal Education, Intellectual Property, Entertainment Law

DAVID GROSSMAN | ADJUNCT PATENT SUPERVISOR

IP Clinic alum David Grossman serves as the clinic’s adjunct supervising attorney for patent matters. He is also the Senior Director of Technology Transfer and Industry Collaboration at George Mason University.  In addition, he has founded — and also worked with — several successful start-up companies and non-profit organizations, as well as monetizing numerous technologies (including several of his own 20 plus patents), some with extremely large multi-national companies. Prior to this current position, David was Vice President of Intellectual Property at Ofinno LLC, an Adjunct Professor of Law at the at the George Mason University Anton Scalia Law School, President of the National Association of Patent Practitioners, Research Editor for “The Journal of the Association of University Technology Managers,” and operator of a boutique intellectual property law practice.  Earlier in his career, David led the software and avionics development for several rocket and satellite programs including the X-34 rocket plane and designed toys for Fisher-Price. David received a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from the American University Washington College of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University.

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NANCY WEISS | ADJUNCT SUPERVISOR

Nancy has been a key drafter and negotiator of several groundbreaking international agreements, including the first copyright treaty to mandate a stand-alone exception to help end the book famine for people with print disabilities; Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art to address outstanding issues from the Holocaust Era; and United Nations frameworks for Internet governance and digital access/inclusion. She has also helped craft domestic laws and strategies in these areas.  

Earlier in her career, Nancy practiced law at Williams & Connolly and clerked for the Hon. William Schwarzer (N.D. California, Director of the Federal Judicial Center).  Before attending law school at the University of Michigan, she led an academic support program at her alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania, and continues to mentor aspiring and established lawyers.

As an elected member of the American Law Institute and the Cosmos Club, through music (including as past-President of the Washington Savoyards), and through storytelling, Nancy strives to make the law more accessible.  She is a member of the California, District of Columbia, and Supreme Court Bars, and served two terms as chair of the Arts, Entertainment, Media, and Sports Section of the D.C. Bar.  Nancy serves on the Board of the U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield and, as a Board member, has guided several performing arts organizations through major transitions.