Prof. Michael Birnhack

Michael Birnhack is a professor at the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University. He is a researcher and lecturer in the fields of law and technology in general, and focuses on the field of privacy and intellectual property. He began his academic career as a faculty member at the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa, where he co-founded the Center for Law and Technology with Prof. Niva Elkin-Koren. In 2007, he moved to the faculty in Tel Aviv. To date, he has published five books, edited four books, and published over 80 articles in journals in Israel and abroad. Birnhack has taught courses at leading universities around the world, including Washington University, UCLA, and Northwestern in the United States, Bocconi in Italy, and Melbourne in Australia. He was a member of two research groups that won research grants from the European Union, and was awarded six grants from the Israeli Science Foundation (the current one is a Breakthrough Research Grant) and other research grants. Michael founded and directed the S. Horowitz Institute for Intellectual Property at the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University, directed international master’s degree programs, and founded the Privacy Clinic, the first of its kind in Israel. He was a member of various public committees (Schoffman Committee on Databases, GPO Committee on Digital Journalism), testified and advised other professional committees, and initiated and directed a legal assistance project for social enterprises during the 7th of October War. He won the Zeltner Award for Excellence in Research (Senior Researcher) in 2020.