Bolstering UCLA’s strength and impact in law and technology, Julia Powles is joining the Institute for Technology, Law and Policy as its executive director. Powles comes aboard after a worldwide search for a leader of the five-year-old institute, which is a collaboration between UCLA School of Law and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.

An international research leader in law and technology, Powles most recently worked as a law professor at the University of Western Australia, where she directed the UWA Tech & Policy Lab. With expertise in privacy, intellectual property, cybersecurity, internet law, and health law, she has made significant contributions to the governance of digital technologies across three continents, as a research academic and through notable roles in government, law, journalism, and international policy.

Powles is particularly known for her unflinching analyses of how tech firms evade and distort regulation. With a history of cross-appointments in computer science and law, her published work includes groundbreaking investigations into the business and legal practices of Big Tech. She has received many honors, speaks widely, and previously held academic appointments at leading institutions including the University of Cambridge, Cornell Tech, and New York University.

Complementing her executive director role, Powles will be tech policy lead for UCLA DataX, a strategic initiative that is aimed at harnessing UCLA’s full integrated capabilities in data science and data justice, in service of the public.

“There is no question that the most exciting and essential work in technology, law, and policy is in California,” Powles says. “I am incredibly invigorated by the opportunity to build on ITLP’s excellent foundations and to carve a vital, embedded, Southern Californian counterweight in tech policy. At such a consequential time, I cannot wait to work with our brilliant students and faculty to deliver on real and urgent needs.”

The institute offers a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of emerging tech and the law, with a record of important projects on a range of topics, including privacy and security, artificial intelligence regulation, platforms and the press, and various aspects of intellectual property. As executive director, Powles will work closely with Mark McKenna and John Villasenor, the institute’s co-faculty directors. McKenna is a professor of law and currently serves as the law school’s vice dean of faculty and intellectual life. Villasenor is a professor of electrical engineering, law, public policy, and management.

“I’m absolutely delighted that Dr. Powles will join us and lead ITLP into its next chapter,” McKenna says. “The institute has gotten off to a great start and positioned UCLA as an important voice in a range of technology debates, and Dr. Powles is the ideal person to build on that momentum and broaden and deepen ITLP’s impact. I’m also thrilled that her appointment gives ITLP the chance to work even more closely with our colleagues in DataX, who have been great partners to us.”

Powles earned a Ph.D. in law from the University of Cambridge and a bachelor of civil law from the University of Oxford. She also holds degrees in science and law, with honors, from the University of Western Australia and Australian National University.