Michele Benedetto Neitz is a Professor of Law at Golden Gate University School of Law and the Founding Director of the Blockchain Law for Social Good Center, the first of its kind in the United States.  She teaches Blockchain and the Law, Business Associations, Legal Ethics, and other classes. She has been voted “Most Outstanding Professor” by the graduating class of GGU Law six times, most recently in 2022.
Professor Neitz was appointed to advise the California legislature as a member of the California Blockchain Working Group in 2019.  She researches and lectures on ethical, regulatory, and social impact issues in blockchain technology, and published the first law review article examining ethics in blockchain technology in January 2020.  Her most recent article, entitled “How to Regulate Blockchain’s Real-Life Applications: Lessons from the California Blockchain Working Group,” was published by the peer-reviewed Jurimetrics Journal in 2021.  Professor Neitz regularly speaks at tech and law conferences on these issues, including recent presentations at the CITRIS Research Exchange Panel at UC Berkeley and Bilgi University’s Data Driven Economy Lab in Istanbul, Turkey.
Professor Neitz graduated as a Root-Tilden-Scholar from New York University School of Law.  Before joining academia, she clerked in the Southern District of California for Judge Napoleon Jones.  She also worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and was an associate at Morrison & Foerster.
Two months ago, Professor Michele Neitz founded the first-of-its-kind Blockchain Law for Social Good Center at Golden Gate University School of Law.  The Center's three pillars--education, community, and research/policy--are creating a new model of blockchain education for law students, lawyers, and policymakers.  Join us to find out how the Center is training government agencies to look at blockchain as a tool for social good.  There is more to this technology's story than crypto scams!