The Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy is excited to announce the appointment of Mary Pat Dwyer as its Acting Executive Director.

Dwyer, who has served as the Institute’s Academic Program Director, steps into the leadership role following the departure of Natalie Roisman. The appointment ensures the seamless ongoing work of the Institute, a leading national academic hub dedicated to training future lawyers, advancing public-interest technology research, and shaping policy discussions surrounding digital governance, privacy, and artificial intelligence.

The Tech Institute’s three faculty co-directors welcomed Dwyer to her new role.  “Mary Pat has been a treasured colleague and leader within the Institute for years, and no one is better positioned to carry us into the future,” said Mark Claster Mamolen Professor of Law and Technology Julie Cohen.  Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Justice Innovation Tanina Rostain agreed: “Mary Pat is a beloved instructor and advisor to our students and an important collaborator for our faculty. No one knows our community, and its needs and values, better than she does.”  Professor Paul Ohm added, “We’re living through a time of great transformation, and under Mary Pat’s leadership, we look forward to engaging policymakers, the practicing bar, and the public to lend Georgetown’s rigor and focus on human values to the great technology law and policy debates of the day.”

As Executive Director, Dwyer will oversee the Institute’s strategic growth, fundraising, public programming, and key policy initiatives, including The Justice Lab and Georgetown AI & the Legal Profession (GAILP), and continue to deepen the Institute’s engagement with Georgetown Law’s students through the Technology Law & Policy Scholars Program and Georgetown Law Technology Review.

“It is a privilege to step into the Executive Director role of an Institute I care so deeply about,” said Dwyer. “The legal and regulatory decisions we make today will shape the society we live in tomorrow, and questions of AI governance, privacy, and the digital divide have never been more important. I look forward to working closely with our faculty, staff, students, and partners to ensure the Tech Institute remains at the forefront of educating policy leaders, shaping public debate, and readying students for unprecedented challenges.”

Prior to joining Georgetown Law, Dwyer served as Counsel at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, advising clients on national security law, international trade, and cross-border regulatory compliance. She also served as a Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, where her research and advocacy focused on content moderation, online speech, and civil liberties. Dwyer held judicial clerkships on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina.  She earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from Duke University School of Law.

Georgetown Law’s Institute for Technology Law & Policy seeks to advance justice, inclusion and accountability at the intersection of technology and law. The Tech Institute provides a central hub for policymakers, academics, advocates and technologists to study and discuss the most pressing issues in technology law and policy today. It offers public and private convenings and workshops, as well as training for Congressional staff on key tech policy issues. The Tech Institute’s faculty conduct original research on topics including domestic and global technology governance, the uses of technological tools to promote access to civil justice and to voting rights, patents and public health and inclusive intellectual property. 

For more information, please contact the Georgetown Law Office of Communications at mediarelations@law.georgetown.edu.