Meet This Month’s Featured Fellow: Smita Rajmohan
Smita Rajmohan
What is your current position?
Product Counsel, Apple, Inc. – SF Bay Area
How did you get interested in tech and policy?
At Berkeley Law, I took a bunch of courses around IP and internet law, and realized that there is a whole host of interesting issues that web services and search engines have to grapple with. So I started to explore technology transactions and privacy as my focus areas post law school – and I’ve never been bored.
What are you currently working on and what excites you about it?
As a Product Counsel, I get to advise on a whole range of different problems and issues, dealing from worldwide regulatory and compliance issues to day to day IP issues in commercial transactions. It involves working with several stakeholders within the company to get to a resolution that is a good outcome not only for our product but also for consumers.
What area of internet law and policy are you most interested in and why?
I’m fascinated by how AI and machine learning will change our lives. It will be interesting to see how laws try to catch up with and evolve based on new and challenging issues that come out of this space.
What’s the project/accomplishment that you’re most proud of?
A couple of years ago, I assisted the Victim Rights Law Center with pro bono legal research and analysis to advance its national Privacy Rights Project aimed at victims of “revenge porn” and sexual violence. The research assisted service providers in identifying laws that impact victim privacy, helping victims make informed decisions about their personal information and enabling programs to more effectively and efficiently protect survivors’ privacy rights. I am proud to have played a small part in this herculean effort.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“Dream big and be yourself” – absolutely the best career advice ever. I doubt my 18-year old self would’ve imagined I would be half-way across the globe working for one of the biggest technology companies in the world. But I dared to dream it, so here I am. It took a mountain of people supporting me each step of the way, but it definitely helped that I was clear and focused about my goals, and authentic and true to my roots and value system.
What is your favorite TV series?
I love Wall-E. It’s just the BEST combination of romance, animation and sci-fi in my view. In terms of books, I recently read a Spy among Friends by Ben McIntyre. It’s about the world of espionage and an absolute page turner.
What is your favorite meme?
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Newsletter Team: Kathleen Burke, Lyndsey Wajert, W. Tyler Halla, and Michal Totchani