Google Chief Legal Officer to Speak at Santa Clara University School of Law Commencement May 25
Deborah Lohse
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 2, 2013 — The attorney responsible for helping global search-engine company Google navigate some of the world’s most cutting-edge legal issues will be the commencement speaker for Santa Clara University School of Law May 25.
David Drummond, a 1985 undergraduate alumnus of Santa Clara University, will be the honored speaker at SCU Law’s commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 25 at 9:30 a.m. in the Mission Gardens.
Drummond joined Google in 2002, initially as vice president of corporate development. Today, as senior vice president and the company’s chief legal officer, he leads Google's global teams for legal, communications, government relations, corporate development and new business development.
“We are honored to welcome David Drummond back to Santa Clara to serve as this year’s law commencement speaker,” said Santa Clara University School of Law Dean Donald Polden. “His proven ability to balance legal and ethical considerations at one of the world’s most innovative companies will inspire our students to become competent and conscientious lawyers as they embark on their own careers as lawyers who lead.”
Drummond first worked with Google in 1998 when he was a partner in the corporate transactions group at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, one of the nation's leading law firms representing technology businesses. He served as Google’s first outside counsel and worked with founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to incorporate the company and secure its initial rounds of financing.
Among the legal minefields Drummond must navigate at Google are daily requests from government agencies and courts around the world requesting access to users’ data. In 2010 he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post explaining Google’s four-point plan to keep the Internet free and open.
He led the team that earlier this year reached a favorable outcome with the Federal Trade Commission investigation into alleged antitrust behavior in Google’s search operations. He oversaw the company’s decision to stop censoring search results in China, rather than concede to the government's censorship requirements. And in 2006 in Italy, he and two other Google executives faced a conviction, which was later overturned, attempting to hold them criminally responsible for Google Video user violations – a case that has helped shape international law on the limits of service providers’ responsibility for uploaded content.
Drummond earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Santa Clara University in 1985, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School. He has been named to InsideCounsel’s Power Brokers list of the 50 most influential in-house attorneys in North America, and Ebony magazine’s Power 100.
About Santa Clara University School of Law
Santa Clara University School of Law, founded in 1911 on the site of California’s oldest operating higher-education institution, is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. One of the nation’s most diverse law schools, Santa Clara Law offers its 975 students an academically rigorous program, including graduate degrees in international law and intellectual property law; combined J.D./MBA degree; and certificates in intellectual property law, international law, and public interest and social justice law. Santa Clara Law is located in the world-class business center of Silicon Valley, and is distinguished nationally for our top-ranked program in intellectual property. For more information, see law.scu.edu.
Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | SCU Media Relations | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121