Peter Micek is Global Policy & Legal Counsel at Access Now, a digital rights organizations, and Lecturer at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Peter leads the Access Now policy team’s business and human rights work, advocating for a more rights-respecting telecom and tech sector. Through direct corporate engagement, norm-building at the United Nations, and investor advocacy, Peter helps Access Now to defend and extend the digital rights to privacy and freedom of expression online. As Lecturer at Columbia on internet governance, Peter’s course focuses on the structures and processes that determine public policy in the digital age.

A lawyer by training, Peter completed a JD cum laude at the University of San Francisco School of Law, and in 2010 published “A Genealogy of Home Visits,” critiquing surveillance of at-risk communities. As a law student, Peter defended independent journalists and engaged in Freedom of Information litigation at First Amendment Project. For five years, in his native San Francisco, Peter led youth and ethnic media development at New America Media, and was Web Editor at KALW’s daily radio program Your Call. Peter studied political science and journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He is licensed by the state bars of California and New York, and has no cats.