Rate My Professor Cynthia Laury Dahl

Cynthia Laury Dahl is a Practice Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she has served since 2012 as the inaugural Director of the Detkin Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinic. This interdisciplinary clinic functions as a teaching law firm, providing students with hands-on experience in transactional intellectual property lawyering, including counseling clients ranging from individual creators to start-ups and the Penn Center for Innovation on patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and data protection issues. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University (1991) and a J.D. from Stanford Law School (1998), where she received the Stanford Law and Policy Trial Advocacy Award and recognition from the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation. Prior to academia, Dahl was Senior Counsel at TruePosition, Inc. (2001-2010), managing IP portfolios, licenses, litigation, and standards advocacy, earning Company Leadership Awards in 2007 and 2010. She served as IP Litigation Associate at Holland & Hart LLP (2000) and Litigation Associate at Pennie & Edmonds LLP (1997-1999). Earlier roles include Pro Bono Director at Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts (1995-1996), Lobbying Associate at Gold and Liebengood (1994), and Legislative Correspondent for Senator Bill Bradley (1991-1993).

Dahl specializes in the business applications of intellectual property and technology law, with research focusing on university technology transfer, IP legal clinics, standard essential patents, and professional ethics in social media. Her publications include "Without Noncompete Agreements, Can Employers Keep A (Trade) Secret?" (American University Business Law Review, 2025), "Did the America Invents Act Change University Technology Transfer?" (Texas Intellectual Property Law Journal, 2021), "When Standards Collide with Intellectual Property" (IP Theory, 2020), "Innovation and Tradition: A Survey of Intellectual Property and Technology Legal Clinics" (Clinical Law Review, 2018, co-authored with Victoria F. Phillips), and "Teaching Would-Be IP Lawyers to 'Speak Engineer'" (Lewis & Clark Law Review, 2015). She has delivered numerous presentations, panels, and keynotes on IP topics, contributed to educational videos and podcasts, and received the Experiential Teaching Award from Penn Carey Law in 2021 for her clinic leadership. Dahl collaborates with the Penn Center for Innovation and the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, admitted to the New York, Pennsylvania, and Philadelphia Bars.