Gautam Hans (he/him) is a Clinical Professor of Law at Cornell Law School. He founded and directs the Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Clinic, helping students represent clients in cases involving free speech, technology, and their intersection with other doctrinal areas. An expert on speech, privacy, and civil liberties, he researches how digital technology unsettles existing doctrinal frameworks. He also studies the dynamics of clinical legal education.

In addition to his teaching and research, Gautam frequently speaks on panels, in conferences, and at symposia on free speech, technology, and legal education. He also represents non-profits and law professors in amicus filings in state and federal courts. A former co-President of the Clinical Legal Education Association, Gautam serves on the board  of the Center for the Study of Applied Legal Education. He is a contributor to Balls and Strikes. In Spring 2024, he was a Scholar-in-Residence at NYU Law; that year, he received the M. Shanara Gilbert Award from the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education.

Prior to Cornell, Gautam served as Associate Clinical Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where he founded Vanderbilt’s First Amendment Clinic. He completed his clinical fellowship at the University of Michigan Law School, and worked on privacy and speech issues at the Center for Democracy and Technology. He also makes ice cream and formerly blogged at Habeas Custard.

In law school, Gautam worked as a student-attorney in the Civil-Criminal Litigation Clinic and the Enterpreneurship Clinic, served as Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology  Law Review, served as Secretary of Outlaws, and played keyboards in T.J. Hooper and the Learned Hands. Prior to graduate school he was an Editorial Assistant in the Knopf Group of Random House, Inc.

Gautam earned his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School; his M.S. in Information from the University of Michigan School of Information; and his B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

A headshot is here.

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