Chance Goddard

Who are you? Tell us about yourself! 

I’m Chance Goddard. I am a technologist and artist, and recently, a graduate of Georgetown Law. 

What drew you to Georgetown’s Tech Law Scholars Program? 

I was drawn to Georgetown’s Tech Law Scholars Program because I was studying for a Doctorate of Information Technology two years prior. I was studying AI’s use in educational technologies, and this research implicated a lot of privacy laws and artificial intelligence. Before this big boom with AI, it had become clear to me that the issues that I was researching and writing about had a big legal component, and I was unsure whether I could be effective in that space without actual legal knowledge and the ability to advocate within the legal space. Tech Law Scholars helped me bridge my research with those legal conversations directly. I was also able to learn about where technology was going and how the law was accommodating those moves.

 Now having graduated, I understand these issues from the doctoral lens: I understand the research and what is best as it relates to artificial intelligence when used in educational technologies, and I also can effectively communicate those things through policy and through advocacy with the tools from Georgetown Law and the Tech Law Scholars Program.

You are also pursuing a dual Doctor of Information Technology (D.I.T.). Can you tell us more about your experience in a dual degree program? 

The dual degree program was rewarding. Georgetown made it easy because they have a concurrent degree policy that allows you to work with programs within the university or with other universities. I was also allowed to transfer in six credits from that Doctor of Information Technology program, which made it technically easier to endure the law course load along with another doctoral program. The programs greatly enriched one another – studying the use of technology in organizations to achieve certain organizational goals in my Doctorate mirrored what we discuss at GAILP: How can we apply AI and implement it in ways that are human-centered and align with our current understanding of ethics and professional responsibility? I feel that my experience gave me a holistic view of the issues that I hope to work in for the rest of my life.

What have you been researching as a research assistant for the GAILP program? 

At GAILP, we are recognizing the ways that artificial intelligence is affecting legal practice, understanding what that means for law students and legal practitioners, and looking for ways that we can supplement the curricula here at Georgetown. We are tracking these changes to understand how AI is affecting the industry, and we are future-casting based research to highlight gaps. Through targeted recommendations, articles, panels, and events that bring the right players together to discuss these ideas, GAILP has been a center for housing these conversations. It provides infrastructure for individuals who want to adopt AI thoughtfully and adopt AI progressively with a growth mindset. 

We are working on a Maturity Model, which is a framework that assesses and evaluates an organization at different levels of progress in a specific area. At GAILP, we are looking at organizations and their progress as it relates to the implementation of artificial intelligence. We see this implementation occurring in about five stages, and what we want to do is support the legal practitioner at each of those five stages of implementation to help them personally adopt AI. We aim to help them not only keep up with AI in their organization, but also become a champion of artificial intelligence themselves, able to use it in a way that reflects AI fluency. 

What has been your most impactful class, professor, or experience in the Tech Law Scholar experience?

My experience in the Tech Law Scholars program would be vastly different without Professor Amanda Levendowski Tepski and her Information Policy and Intellectual Property Clinic (IPIP) here at Georgetown, which I took in the Fall of 2L. In IPIP, we look at intellectual property and information policy controversies through a social justice lens, and that was very important for me. I didn’t want my study of intellectual property, and that being my area of specialization, to somehow insulate me from civil rights issues or social justice. The clinic allowed me to understand how First Amendment issues, issues related to innovation and its benefits and burdens, are related directly to intellectual property. 

I appreciated the opportunity to work with some large players in the nonprofit space, an experience which taught me two things: one, it gave me confidence that I could work with clients and provide meaningful work analysis and advice, and two, it was rewarding to work with a team of my peers and to see their intellect. Experiencing this collaboration made me confident that that’s what I would like to do going forward. Finally, I had no clue what strategic impact litigation was prior to my experience in IPIP, and I know now it is something that I hope to keep a part of my legal practice going forward.

How has your Tech Law Scholar experience informed your post-graduation plans? 

I will be joining O’Melveny & Myers LLP as an associate, and Tech Law Scholars directly connected me with that position. Our academic director Mary Pat was an associate at that firm as well, and so it was great to see her at networking events and firm events. She helped me make some of the relationships that supported my time as a summer associate. I am entering my new role with information and relationships that I feel will support me in being successful.

Tell us about your work experience before law school. 

Prior to coming to law school, I was in Broadway’s The Book of Mormon. I was an actor, primarily, and after that I studied for my master’s of education at the University of Southern California. Then, I was an educator and corporate instructional designer prior to coming to Georgetown.