Divya Goel

Who are you? Tell us about yourself!

I am a recent graduate of the Tech Law Scholars Program, originally from Michigan. At Georgetown, I founded the Georgetown Plaintiffs’ Law Association, was the President of the Georgetown Antitrust and Competition Law Association, and was part of our People’s Parity Project chapter leadership team. During my 3L year, I had the honor of working on national-level advocacy projects as Co-President of the National Plaintiffs’ Law Association and a legal fellow at the Vanderbilt Policy Fellow. I am passionate about the international scope of technology law issues and thus spent my final semester of law school studying abroad at the Center for Transnational Legal Studies in London.

Before law school, I was a TechCongress fellow, where I researched technology policy and antitrust topics for Senator Klobuchar, and I was previously a senior research analyst at the Brattle Group. I have a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Economics, and Data Science from MIT.

Tell us about your work experience before law school.

For the first three years out of undergrad, I was a research analyst at a firm that does economic consulting work. I was helping with government investigations into civil issues, for example, helping the firm track down potential money laundering, or ways that companies were violating different regulations by going through lots of data. Through this work, I got a bit of exposure to a few policy-adjacent topics, mostly in telecom policy, which was completely new to me.

From there, I started a fellowship at TechCongress for people who have STEM backgrounds and want to pivot into a policy direction. I was especially interested in issues around Big Tech and competition, so I got to work on the Senate Antitrust, the Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee, which at the time was chaired by Senator Klobuchar. Five or six months into my fellowship, ChatGPT was released to the public for the first time, and so that was a huge shift. I started spending much more of my fellowship thinking about AI policy issues, like consumer protection and privacy.

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

I knew that if I was going to law school, it was to do something in this tech realm. When I researched law schools, it was clear that Georgetown had the most robust program. I actually applied to Georgetown with Binding Early Decision because I was so confident that this was the best place for me, especially with the Tech Law Scholars Program. I had a good friend in DC who was in the program, and when I was trying to decide whether to defer Georgetown or not, he connected me with his mentor, Professor Anupam Chander. I had been following Professor Chander’s work, so I knew it must be a very special program if students are so connected to these incredible professors.

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

Professor Tanina Rostain has been impactful to my law school experience. I only got to meet her because Mary Pat Dwyer, of the Tech Law Scholars Program, sent out information about a talk Professor Rostain was leading. I also did some RA work for her. She’s been very influential to my thinking, and in how I am approaching my post-law school plans as well. I took her course “Professional Responsibility: The American Legal Profession in the 21st Century: Technology, Markets, and Democracy.” It was an absolutely incredible class because we discussed how technology is shaping the structural environment of the law.

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

I am going to be working at a plaintiff-side firm called Hausfeld. Some of their major practice areas are antitrust, which I already knew I was interested in, and a consumer protection practice that includes topics like privacy and data breaches, which are topics that I became more interested in throughout the Tech Law Scholars program.

The Tech Law Scholars program helped me shape my interest in doing plaintiff-side advocacy. In the first year, we spent a lot of time talking about private rights of action and privacy law, a topic that got my wheels turning: Who is enforcing those private rights of action? Who are the lawyers making that happen? I was able to spend my first summer at the DC Attorney General’s office in their consumer protection group, largely because of the Tech Law program. I hope to do work at the intersection of government and private plaintiff firm work as well.

What are your interests outside of law?

I am on a dance team in DC, which has been really fun! I haven’t been as involved as I should have been in law school, because law school was busy. I am excited to get back into that! I also like to read and to go on nice long walks around DC. I find it’s like a really good city for walking aimlessly, and you’ll find something nice along the way.