Mehtab Khan joined the Cleveland State University College of Law faculty this fall as an Assistant Professor. Professor Khan is an expert on copyright law, platform governance, and artificial intelligence and will teach Intellectual Property, AI Law, and other tech-related subjects.
“CSU|LAW is the right fit for me because it offers a combination of great colleagues, a supportive environment, and abundant opportunities for scholarship and collaboration,” said Professor Khan. “I am excited to be in a position that will allow me to engage with curious minds and foster a culture of intellectual exploration.”
Professor Khan was previously a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. Her research at Harvard examined ways of governing the practices involved in developing and deploying AI technologies, with interest in ensuring diversity and representation in the development process. She has also held positions at Yale Law School, serving as a Resident Fellow at the Information Society Project and as the Program Director for the Yale/Wikimedia Initiative on Intermediaries and Information. Additionally, she has been a visiting researcher at Stanford HAI.
Professor Khan holds an LLM and JSD from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She previously earned BA and LLB from the Lahore University of Management Sciences, a private research university in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Joining CSU|LAW, Professor Khan became the first Pakistani woman to be hired as a tenure track tech law professor in the United States.
“I’m grateful to play a part in including global south voices in shaping tech law,” said Professor Khan. “I believe that the law can be a powerful tool to empower underrepresented groups and promote equity in the benefits of new technologies. I feel immensely privileged to have come this far, and I look forward to using my influence as a law professor to continue my work empowering underrepresented voices and engaging diverse communities.”
Professor Khan is a licensed attorney who has practiced in the United States, Malaysia, and Pakistan. She has held positions at the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation—three Bay Area institutions that have been at the forefront of many legal battles around digital rights. She has been the recipient of numerous grants to work on the use of AI in hiring.
“These fellowships were incredibly rare opportunities for someone from my background, and the very type of experience I came to this country to find in order to develop my practical skills in technology law and policy,” said Professor Khan. “I gained a solid foundation both in the relevant areas of law, but also in the importance of public interest in designing legal and policy responses.
Professor Khan was drawn to the intersection of law and technology because of the inherently global reach of technology, and the role of the US as a leader in both innovation as well as in instituting laws reacting to and supporting new technologies. She previously taught at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where she designed the first course on Internet Law to be offered at any law school in Pakistan.
Professor Khan developed an interest in understanding how civil liberties and economic opportunities for marginalized groups are shaped by technological change— an interest which was furthered by extensive work on various AI-related projects in the past few years. Her doctoral dissertation, completed at Berkeley Law, examines the role of internet platforms in shaping fair use. This research was partly inspired by the challenges internet users face in accessing knowledge and the ways platforms like Google and Wikipedia navigate complex copyright rules to make knowledge more accessible.
Teaching in a new and still developing area of law of AI law can be challenging. But Professor Khan recognizes the timing presents a unique opportunity to shape the foundational principles and frameworks that will guide future legal practices. She is excited about the opportunity for collaboration and creative thinking by both faculty and students as legal issues related to artificial intelligence arise.
“In the next several years, AI law will likely evolve rapidly to address the complex challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence,” explained Professor Khan. “We can expect to see increased regulatory frameworks at both state and federal levels. Legal standards will be developed to tackle issues such as data privacy, algorithmic bias, and intellectual property. Additionally, there should be a growing emphasis on international cooperation to harmonize AI regulation across borders.
Professor Khan will continue to be a Faculty Affiliate at the Yale Information Society Project, as well as the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.