Law Prof. Johnson addresses legal impact of artificial intelligence at ALI

Tulane Law Professor Kristin Johnson explored the implications of artificial intelligence for American law and public policy at a special program this weekend that kicked off the annual meeting of the prestigious American Law Institute (ALI).

Johnson, the McGlinchey Stafford Professor of Law and Associate Dean of Faculty Research at Tulane, spoke as part of a three-expert panel moderated by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar of the California Supreme Court.

Her fellow panelists included Prof. Cary Coglanese of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Tom Lue, general counsel of DeepMind, an AI research firm that is part of the Alphabet group of companies.

Johnson joined Tulane Law School last year from Seton Hall University where she was Director of its Program on Regulation, Governance and Risk Management. She has presented her research on systemic risk, risk management, cyber risk regulation, emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, throughout the United States and abroad.

In recent weeks, she has taken part in a number of academic conferences relating to technology and the law. She helped organize a joint academic workshop between Tulane and Michigan State University’s Center for Law, Technology & Innovation on “Emerging Technologies and the Law”; presented at Notre Dame Law School’s London workshop on corporate governance and compliance; and a Duke Law School panel on “Ethical Considerations in Tech Regulation and Governance.”

Johnson is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an American Bar Association Fellow. She has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California-Irvine, University of Florida, University of Illinois, and Washington & Lee University Law Schools.

Johnson served as Assistant General Counsel and Vice President at JP Morgan and an associate at Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett LLP’s New York and London offices where she represented issuers and underwriters in domestic and international debt and equity offerings, lenders and borrowers in banking and credit matters, and private equity firms and publicly-traded companies in mergers and acquisitions.

She clerked for the Honorable Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr., then of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Before law school she served as an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co.  She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received a B.S. in comparative economics, with honors, and the University of Michigan Law School, where she received a J.D. and served as a Notes Editor on the Michigan Law Review.