Get to know us
Our leadership team brings together years of experience in the law, entrepreneurship and project management.
Tal Niv
Director of Applied Innovation
LexLab
nivtal@uclawsf.edu
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.
Drew Amerson
Director
LexLab
amersond@uclawsf.edu
Drew Amerson has been at UC Law SF since 2015. Before joining LexLab, Drew was a Visiting Assistant Professor, teaching courses in intellectual property and entrepreneurship. He also managed the Startup Legal Garage.
Drew is committed to improving access to justice through legal technology. He established LexLab's internationally acclaimed Justice Technology Accelerator program and teaches "Justice Tech: Building a Startup," "Legal Operations for Lawyers," and "In-House Counsel Toolkit: Skills & Strategies."
His early career included years at Sidley Austin, Taylor & Company, and clerking in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota. A pioneer in legal innovation, Drew founded a startup in 2011 that created an online community to connect law firms and companies with highly skilled freelance attorneys.
Drew is a graduate of Columbia Law School and has a B.A. in Philosophy from Carleton College.
Alisa Sedneva
Research and Program Assistance, LexLab
Alisa is the open-source licensing & AI attorney, with 15 years of experience in software licensing, open source compliance, and contract review, supporting global product teams at Wind River Systems, a leader in embedded software. Alisa serves as a senior member of the Open Source Program Office, advising on IP policy, reviewing third-party components across complex platforms like VxWorks and embedded Linux, and clearing open source contributions. Alisa holds an LLM in Science, IP & Technology from UC Law San Francisco, and co-hosts a LinkedIn Live series on AI regulation.
Affiliated Scholars
Michele Benedetto Neitz
Professor of Law, Golden Gate University School of Law
Michele Benedetto Neitz is a Professor of Law at Golden Gate University School of Law, where she teaches Blockchain and the Law, Business Associations, Legal Ethics, and other classes. She has been voted “Most Outstanding Professor” by the graduating class of GGU Law five times, most recently in Spring 2020. She was appointed to advise the California legislature as a member of the California Blockchain Working Group in 2019.
Professor Neitz researches and lectures on ethical and regulatory issues in blockchain technology. She published the first law review article examining ethics in blockchain technology in January 2020. Her latest article, How to Regulate Blockchain’s Real-Life Applications: Lessons from the California Blockchain Working Group, will be published in Jurimetrics, the Journal of Law, Science and Technology, in February 2021.
Professor Neitz also publishes on blogs, with posts in 2020 on Machine Lawyering and the FinReg Blog. She regularly speaks at tech and law conferences on these issues, including recent presentations at the CITRIS Research Exchange Panel at UC Berkeley and the University of Tokyo’s Blockchain Research Group Meeting.
Professor Neitz received her J.D. from NYU School of Law as a Root-Tilden-Kern scholar. Prior to joining GGU, she worked as a law clerk in the Southern District of California and served as an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego. She also worked an associate in the San Diego office of Morrison & Foerster, LLP, specializing in corporate labor and employment matters.
