Universal Acceptance: what is it and how does it relate to digital inclusivity?

Tech, Law & Security Program

About Us

The Technology, Law & Security Program (TLS) is an initiative launched in 2020 at American University Washington College of Law to explore the critical legal and policy questions arising from an increasingly dynamic technology landscape. We are at an inflection point. Advances in technology, including the advent and ubiquity of Artificial Intelligence and the future development of quantum computing, have created tremendous opportunities, but have also exposed, exacerbated, and in some ways created novel risks to individual, societal, and national security. TLS advances rigorous, interdisciplinary research at the intersection of emerging technology, law and security, offering innovative, rights-respecting solutions to the legal and governance issues of the technological age.

Our work centers around four key focus areas: Cognitive Security in the Age of AI; Privacy, Data Governance, & Trust; Technology, National Security, and the Future of Competition and Conflict; and Technology and the Future of Law Enforcement. With a team of uniquely positioned experts, TLS collaborates with private and public sector partners, civil society, and academia to foster high-level policy dialogue, engage our students and fellows in cutting-edge research projects, and convene conferences, colloquia and workshops to inform public understanding of and develop practical solutions to the most pressing technology-related issues of our time. Through our research, engagement, and specialized legal education, TLS also prepares the next generation of leaders to navigate the complex relationship between technological innovation, security, and individual rights.

Meet Our Team

Gary Corn

Program Director

Professor Gary Corn is the director of the Technology, Law & Security Program and an adjunct professor of cyber and national security law and the law of armed conflict. A recognized expert on the intersection of cyber and national security law and policy, Professor Corn joined TLS after serving twenty-six years on active duty in the U.S. Army as a military attorney practicing national security law at the highest levels within the Department of Defense. His final five years he served as the Staff Judge Advocate (General Counsel) to U.S. Cyber Command. Professor Corn is a frequent, and highly-sought out speaker at international and national conferences and has published numerous articles, book chapters, and blog posts, including in the American Journal of International Law, The Temple International and Comparative Law Journal, the Texas International Law Journal, the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, on Lawfare, Just Security, and the Lieber Institute’s Articles of War. He has contributed chapters to several Oxford University Press books and is a co-author of National Security Law and the Constitution (Wolters Kluwer)(2020).

During his military career, Professor Corn served in various positions at the brigade, division, and corps level, including multiple times as a military prosecutor, civil litigator, and operational law attorney. His assignments include serving as a Deputy Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Operational Law Branch Chief in the Office of the Judge Advocate General of the Army, the Staff Judge Advocate to U.S. Army South, a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, and on deployment as the Chief of International Law for Combined Forces Command in Afghanistan. Professor Corn received a JD from the George Washington University, a BA in International Relations from Bucknell University, an LLM from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, and an MA in National Security Studies from the United States Army War College. He is also a graduate of the Escola de Comando e Estado Maior do Exército do Brasil (Command and General Staff College of the Brazilian Army).

Professor Corn is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Law & National Security; a member of the editorial board of the Georgetown Journal of National Security Law and Policy; an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Center for a New American Security’s Technology and National Security Program; an Advisory Board Director for the Cyber Security Forum Initiative; a Senior Fellow at the Lieber Institute for Law & Land Warfare; an advisor to the International Code of Conduct Association; an advisor to Intelligence for Good; an advisor to the Texas Tech School of Law’s Center for Military Law & Policy; a Senior Advisor to Steptoe, LLP’s National Security and Global Risk Management Team; and the Founder and Principal of Jus Novus Consulting, LLC. Professor Corn also served previously as a Senior Fellow with the Army Cyber Institute, and with the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats program at the R Street Institute.

View Professor Corn's Publications

Veronica I. Miranda

Associate Program Director

Veronica I. Miranda is the Associate Director of the Technology, Law & Security Program. Ms. Miranda joined TLS most recently from Microsoft where she served as a Senior Corporate Counsel in the Law Enforcement and National Security team within the Corporate, External, and Legal Affairs division. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ms. Miranda served in the U.S. Government for 24 years. First, as an attorney for the Small Business Administration, followed by 20 years in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of the General Counsel.

During her career at the FBI, Ms. Miranda earned expertise as an operational attorney in national security and cyber law as well as related policy. She held various roles within FBI’s OGC, including 2 years as the Unit Chief of the Science and Technology Policy and Law Unit. She also served as Assistant General Counsel for various other units and worked every aspect of national security investigations to include espionage, counterespionage, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, terrorist use of the internet, and cyber matters - including criminal and nation-state sponsored intrusions. She was a recipient of the 2020 FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in Program Management. The team award recognized the work in providing unique and leading-edge insight derived from its investigations that benefited U.S. national security, private sector critical infrastructure partners, and policy makers.

While at the SBA, Ms. Miranda served as an Agency Representative to a White House Task Force preparing the United States for its participation at a United Nations World Conference against Racism, Discrimination and Xenophobia. Later in her career, Ms. Miranda was a National Security Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where she studied and conducted research with 20 other Fellows from the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. Armed Forces. Ms. Miranda joins AU as a “double eagle” having attended American University where she obtained a B.A. in Justice, as well as WCL where she obtained her J.D.

Alex Joel

Senior Project Director & TLS Team Leader

Alex Joel is a Senior Project Director and Resident Adjunct Professor at the American University Washington College of Law. He leads the Privacy Across Borders research initiative, which is part of the law school’s Tech, Law & Security Program. He is conducting research, developing programming, and teaching courses focused on the intersections between the law, national security, technology, and privacy.

Before coming to American University, Professor Joel spent nearly two decades in the Intelligence Community. The 9/11 attacks motivated him to join the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel in 2002. In 2005, he moved to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where he served as the Civil Liberties Protection Officer for 14 years, reporting directly to five different DNI’s. Starting in 2015, he simultaneously served as the ODNI’s Chief Transparency Officer.

Professor Joel began his legal career as an officer in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. After leaving the Army, he worked in private practice as a technology attorney at the law firm of Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge in Washington, D.C. (now Pillsbury Winthrop), and then as the privacy, technology, and e-commerce attorney for Marriott International, Inc.

Professor Joel is an Emeritus Fellow for IAPP, where he previously served as a member of the Board of Directors. He is a member of the Future of Privacy Forum’s Advisory Board, as well as of the Data Policy Advisory Council for the Software Information Industry Association. He is also a Special Advisor to the ABA’s Standing Committee on Law & National Security.

View Professor Joel's Publications

Shanzay Pervaiz

Senior Researcher

Shanzay Pervaiz is a Senior Researcher at the Washington College of Law. During law school, she worked on research and advocacy in safe and affordable housing and the intersection of law, technology, and civil rights. Currently, she is researching how to preserve transatlantic data transfers following the Schrems II decision. Shanzay is a graduate of the University of Central Florida and the University of Miami School of Law.

View Shanzay Pervaiz's Publications

McKaila Andrews

Program Coordinator

McKaila Andrews is the Program Coordinator of the Technology, Law & Security Program, where she supports the planning and execution of academic programming, events, and communications initiatives. Prior to joining TLS, she worked as a Consulting Associate and as a Translations Project Manager. McKaila holds a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland and is currently pursuing her J.D. at American University Washington College of Law.

Sign me up!