The U.S. legal system is at a crossroads in the field of technology: Can it keep up with the rapid experimentation and deployment in AI ? While some states push for stronger privacy and AI laws, the federal government appears to lean toward deregulation. How does this fragmented approach impact businesses, consumers, and the future of technology? Mauricio Figueroa sits down with legal professionals Chris Mammen and Maria Angel, two experts based on opposite coasts of the U.S., bringing complementary and insightful perspectives. Together, they discuss the evolving legal challenges around privacy, intellectual property, and content moderation in the United States. Mauricio Figueroa is a Mexican legal scholar based in the United Kingdom. His area of expertise is Law and Digital Technologies, and has international experience in legal research, teaching, and public policy. He is the host of the SCL podcast "Privacy and Technology Laws Around the World". Chris Mammen is the Office Managing Partner of Womble Bond Dickinson's San Francisco office, who has guided Silicon Valley, national, and global tech and life sciences clients in high-stakes patent, other intellectual property, and technology litigation for over 25 years. He has led both large and small trial teams in courts throughout the United States, and has also served as lead counsel on appeals before the Ninth and Federal Circuits. His clients include companies in the software, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, microelectronics, medical devices, and life sciences sectors. Before joining Womble Bond Dickinson in 2019, Chris practiced in the Bay Area offices of several nationally-known law firms. One of only a handful of practicing lawyers to have earned a doctorate in Law from Oxford University in addition to a U.S. law degree, Chris has held visiting faculty positions at UC Hastings School of Law, Berkeley Law School, Stanford Law School, and Oxford University. Drawing on his years of teaching civil procedure, evidence, e-discovery, and advanced patent law, Chris is a creative strategist and has marked wins for clients on a variety of unconventional issues. Before entering law practice, Chris clerked for Judge Robert Beezer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. María P. Ángel is a Postdoctoral Resident Fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project (ISP). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington School of Law. Her research focuses on privacy law, law and technology, and Science and Technology Studies (STS). Using STS’s theoretical and conceptual framework, María examines legal debates on privacy regulation and algorithmic governance. Her work aims to influence and hopefully improve scholarship and public policy discussions on these matters, by surfacing the transformation of key working concepts used by legal actors, the normative commitments that underpin certain proposed regulatory reforms, and the diverse ways in which different stakeholders understand the role of technology in these conversations.
