Cleveland State University College of Law's AI Advisory Council is a group of distinguished practitioners, industry leaders, legal technologists, and academics—working alongside CSU Law faculty and administrators—to help guide CSU Law's broader AI Strategy. The Council's membership reflects the reality of today's legal market: organizations are adopting AI quickly, but they need lawyers who can pair innovation with sound judgment. Drawing on deep experience in AI governance, privacy and cybersecurity, IP and technology transactions, legal operations, and responsible enterprise adoption, the Council helps CSU Law stay aligned with what clients and employers expect—now and next.
The Council's role is practical and forward-looking. It supports CSU Law's efforts to build practice-ready AI fluency through a combination of curriculum integration, co-curricular training, and employer-informed credentials—including the AltaClaro partnership and certificate programming—while reinforcing the professional fundamentals that matter most: confidentiality, verification, competence, and accountability. In partnership with our faculty and staff the Council helps identify priority skills, shape programming and events, and spot emerging issues at the intersection of law and AI so that CSU Law graduates are prepared not only to use AI tools effectively, but to advise clients responsibly in an AI-supported legal profession.
Andrew Bjerken
Vice President, Head of Global Privacy & AI Governance, Marriott Vacations Worldwide
Andrew Bjerken serves as Vice President, Head of Global Privacy & AI Governance at Marriott Vacations Worldwide, where he leads global strategy involving data privacy and AI governance. His experience spans privacy, information security, cybersecurity, and responsible technology governance. He also has served on an IAPP advisory board and taught in Grand Canyon University’s master’s-level cybersecurity curriculum.
Bjerken holds a Doctor of Business Administration and brings to the Council an enterprise perspective on implementing privacy and AI governance across a global organization.
Bennett Borden
Founder and CEO, Clarion AI Partners
Bennett Borden is a lawyer and data scientist whose work focuses on AI governance, algorithmic accountability, and the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence. As founder and CEO of Clarion AI Partners, he leads an integrated law, technology, and strategy firm that helps organizations develop, deploy, test, and govern AI responsibly. His work includes AI governance, algorithmic bias and assurance, data strategy, investigations, and the defensible use of automated decision-making systems.
Before founding Clarion, Borden was a partner, AI Practice Lead, and Chief Data Scientist at DLA Piper. He began his career at the CIA using data analytics and machine learning and has since worked with organizations to evaluate AI systems for legal, regulatory, ethical, and operational risks.
Jessica Cohen
Senior Counsel, Regulatory Affairs - AI, Cybersecurity & Privacy, Verizon
Jessica Cohen is an attorney and public policy leader whose work focuses on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, privacy, and emerging technology policy. At Verizon, she works at the intersection of law, regulation, and rapidly developing technologies, helping address legislative and regulatory issues involving AI, cybersecurity, and privacy.
Cohen earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from CSU Law, graduating first in her class and earning the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Certificate. She also holds degrees from Harvard University and Northwestern University. Her background combines legal practice, public policy, and technology regulation, providing the Council with an in-house perspective on rapidly evolving AI, cybersecurity, and privacy issues.
Christopher Day
Director, Data & AI Governance, Marriott Vacations Worldwide
Christopher Day leads Data & AI Governance at Marriott Vacations Worldwide, where he helps the organization develop governance structures and deploy conversational AI and other advanced technologies responsibly. His earlier career includes service as a medic in the U.S. Air Force and professional-services roles at KPMG and HHM CPAs, where he ultimately served as Chief Innovation Officer.
Day is also a student in CSU Law’s Online J.D. program. He brings to the Council a distinctive combination of enterprise data and AI governance experience, innovation leadership, and the perspective of a working professional pursuing legal education in an AI-enabled environment.
Kevin Garewal
Director, Law Library & Assistant Professor of Law, CSU Law
Kevin R. Garewal is Director of the Law Library and Assistant Professor of Law at CSU Law. A two-time CSU graduate, he earned his J.D. from CSU Law in 2004 and later completed a master’s degree in accounting.
Before returning to CSU, Garewal served as Vice Provost and Dean of Libraries at the University of Rochester and as Associate Director of Collections at Harvard Law School Library. His work encompasses legal research, information literacy, collection development, open access, and innovative library services. Garewal is a member of the Ohio Bar and previously served as an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Cuyahoga County.
Jennifer Harrell
Legal Writing Professor of Law, CSU Law
Jennifer Harrell is a Legal Writing Professor of Law at CSU Law, where she teaches first-year legal research, writing, and advocacy. Before joining CSU Law, she served as a visiting legal writing and torts professor at the University of Akron School of Law, where she also taught in the PLUS program and worked with the moot court program.
Before entering academia, Harrell practiced litigation at Tucker Ellis LLP, focusing on product-liability and toxic-tort matters. She earned her J.D., magna cum laude, from the University of Akron School of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Akron Law Review and completed judicial externships with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Kirk M. Herath
Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor, State of Ohio; Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor of Law, CSU Law
Kirk M. Herath serves as Ohio’s Cybersecurity Strategic Advisor and chairs CyberOhio, the State of Ohio’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board. His work includes coordinating and strengthening cybersecurity capabilities across state and local government, helping public entities prepare for and respond to cyberattacks, and supporting development of Ohio’s cybersecurity workforce. He also serves as a Senior Fellow with CSU Law’s Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection and as an Adjunct Professor of Law.
Herath retired from Nationwide after 32 years, having served as Vice President, Associate General Counsel, and Chief Privacy Officer. His experience spans cybersecurity, privacy, data governance, technology policy, enterprise risk, and public-private leadership. He is also a principal at Pillars Consulting Group and a past president of the International Association of Privacy Professionals.
Debbie Hoffman
Director, P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program, CSU Law
Debbie Hoffman is an executive leader, attorney, entrepreneur, and educator whose work spans financial services, legal innovation, compliance, blockchain, and emerging technologies. As Director of CSU Law’s P. Kelly Tompkins Leadership and Law Program, she focuses on leadership, professional judgment, and preparing students to lead in a rapidly changing legal profession.
Before joining CSU Law, Hoffman served as Managing Associate General Counsel at Western Union and as Head of Legal, North America, for Mphasis and Chief Legal Officer of its subsidiary Digital Risk, LLC. She also founded Symmetry Blockchain Advisors, advising organizations on blockchain strategy and education, and has taught business law, real estate, compliance, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and related technology subjects at several universities.
Mehtab Khan
Assistant Professor of Law, CSU Law
Mehtab Khan is an Assistant Professor of Law at CSU Law, where she teaches Intellectual Property, AI Law, and other technology-related subjects. Her scholarship focuses on copyright, platform governance, artificial intelligence, AI training datasets, automated content moderation, and the effects of AI on creative industries.
Before joining CSU Law, Khan was a Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center and held positions at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project and the Yale/Wikimedia Initiative on Intermediaries and Information. She also has been a visiting researcher at Stanford HAI and has worked with organizations including the Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Commons, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Christa Laser
Associate Professor of Law and Director, Intellectual Property Law Center, CSU Law
Christa Laser is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of CSU Law’s Intellectual Property Law Center. Before entering academia, she practiced intellectual property litigation for nearly a decade at WilmerHale and Kirkland & Ellis, representing leading life-sciences and technology companies in patent, trademark, copyright, false-advertising, and other technology matters.
Laser’s scholarship focuses on intellectual property and innovation. She founded and co-chairs CSU Law’s annual IP+ Conference and brings to the Council extensive experience at the intersection of innovation, technology, intellectual property, and legal education.
Brenda Leong
Director, AI Division, ZwillGen
Brenda Leong is Director of ZwillGen’s AI Division, which combines legal and data-science expertise to help organizations develop and implement responsible AI governance. She leads work involving generative-AI evaluation and red teaming, model-risk-management frameworks, model audits, and the design and automation of AI-related policies and procedures.
Before joining ZwillGen, Leong was Managing Partner at Luminos.Law and previously served as Senior Counsel and Director of AI and Ethics at the Future of Privacy Forum. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the IAPP AI Center, trains professionals for its AI Governance Professional certification program, and teaches AI and biometrics at IE University Law School’s Executive Program.
Katherine Lowry
Chief Information Officer, BakerHostetler
Katherine Lowry is Chief Information Officer at BakerHostetler and a leader in legal innovation and emerging technology. Her work includes augmenting legal services through artificial intelligence and intelligent automation, increasing enterprise data maturity and literacy, developing smart legal contracts, and modernizing the delivery of information and research services.
Lowry also heads IncuBaker, BakerHostetler’s legal technology consulting and research-and-development initiative, and helps lead the firm’s Emerging Technology team. Her work focuses on helping lawyers and corporate legal departments use emerging technology to improve workflows, manage risk, and create new approaches to legal service delivery.
Kevin Mooney
General Counsel, Summa Health
Kevin Mooney is General Counsel of Summa Health and brings extensive experience at the intersection of law, healthcare, technology, data, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Before joining Summa Health, he led privacy and regulatory legal work at Surescripts, partnering with legal, business, and enterprise leadership on privacy, regulatory, technology, and governance matters.
Mooney previously spent approximately two decades at Cleveland Clinic in leadership roles involving technology, intellectual property, cybersecurity, data governance, and AI governance. His experience includes building and leading IT, IP, and cyber legal functions, establishing a Data Governance Office, helping develop AI governance structures, and founding the Northeast Ohio CyberConsortium.
Timothy Opsitnick
Executive Director, The Sedona Conference
Timothy M. Opsitnick is Executive Director of The Sedona Conference, a nonprofit research and educational institute known for its work on complex issues involving law and technology. He has been involved with The Sedona Conference for nearly three decades and has served on its Board of Directors, Working Group leadership, and numerous drafting teams.
Opsitnick’s experience includes electronic discovery, cybersecurity, data privacy, computer forensics, and defensible information-governance processes. He has served as a court-appointed special master and expert witness and has contributed to major Sedona Conference publications addressing electronic discovery, legal holds, information governance, and technology.
Vall Propper
Associate General Counsel, Emory University
Vall Propper is an Associate General Counsel at Emory University, where her practice includes general healthcare matters as well as healthcare and non-healthcare information technology, privacy, and digital technology. Before joining Emory, she served as Associate General Counsel at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Lead Counsel supporting Walmart Health’s value-based-care initiative, and Vice President of Compliance at Option Care Health.
Propper earned her M.P.H. from Case Western Reserve University and her J.D. from Cleveland State University College of Law. Before law school, she worked in local government at the intersection of public health, public safety, and emergency management.
Brian E. Ray
Co-Interim Dean, BakerHostetler Chair in Law & Director, Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection, CSU Law
Brian E. Ray is Co-Interim Dean, BakerHostetler Chair in Law, and Director of CSU Law’s Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection. He joined the CSU Law faculty in 2006 and previously served as Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Online Programs, helping launch the College’s Online J.D. program.
Ray’s research focuses on cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI law and policy. He has led interdisciplinary research and educational initiatives involving cybersecurity, privacy, emerging technologies, and legal education and has played a central role in developing CSU Law’s broader AI strategy, including the AI Advisory Council and related student training initiatives.
Cory Scott
Executive Director, Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection, CSU Law
Cory L. Scott is Executive Director of CSU Law’s Center for Cybersecurity & Privacy Protection and brings more than 25 years of cybersecurity experience across private industry and public service. His career has included vulnerability research, forensics, incident response, and security leadership roles at major technology companies including LinkedIn, Microsoft, Google, and Confluent.
Scott also serves with the Ohio Cyber Reserve and on the CyberOhio Advisory Board. His current work focuses on cybersecurity for public-sector organizations and critical infrastructure, data protection for large service providers, and the evolving intersection of cybersecurity, law, and professional ethics. He has presented at major cybersecurity conferences including Black Hat, USENIX, OWASP, RSA Conference, and SANS.
Mark Smolik
Legal Executive and Advisor
Mark Smolik is a senior legal executive and advisor with more than two decades of experience leading legal functions and developing innovative approaches to legal operations, technology, and service delivery. His work has focused on helping legal departments use data, process improvement, and emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence—to strengthen decision-making, improve efficiency, and better demonstrate value.
Earlier in his career, Smolik served in senior legal leadership roles at DHL Supply Chain Americas, Safelite Group, and The Sherwin-Williams Company. He also founded Qualmet, a platform developed to help legal departments evaluate and measure the value delivered by outside counsel and other legal-service providers. He is a frequent speaker and writer on legal operations, innovation, AI, and the changing legal-services market.
Michael Stovsky
Partner, Intellectual Property, Technology Transactions, Data Security and Privacy, Artificial Intelligence, and Blockchain, Benesch
Michael D. Stovsky is a partner at Benesch whose practice spans intellectual property, technology transactions, data security and privacy, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. He is the former Chair of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group and has nearly three decades of experience representing technology companies ranging from startups and growth-stage businesses to large national and international organizations.
Stovsky advises clients on technology transactions, licensing, intellectual-property protection, privacy and data-security matters, emerging technologies, and complex technology-driven business relationships. His work combines legal, technological, and business perspectives and includes counseling organizations on developing, acquiring, commercializing, and protecting technology.
Dean Williams
Professor and Director, Student Success, CSU Law
Dean Williams is Professor and Director of Student Success at CSU Law. His work focuses on helping students develop the analytical, study, exam-writing, and professional skills necessary to succeed in law school and legal practice.
A 2005 graduate of CSU Law and former member of the law school’s moot court program, Williams continues to support advocacy education and student-success initiatives. Through CSU Law’s Student Success programming, he works with students on legal analysis, academic readiness, study strategies, and the transition to professional practice. Williams brings to the Council an important student-success perspective as CSU Law considers how AI competence should fit within the skills and professional formation of future lawyers.