Michael W. Carroll

Professor of Law, American University
Michael W. Carroll is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (2009 – present). He teaches and writes about intellectual property law and cyberlaw. Professor Carroll's research focuses on the search for balance in intellectual property law over time in the face of challenges posed by new technologies. His research includes projects about the social costs imposed by one-size-fits-all intellectual property rights and about the history of copyright in music.

Professor Carroll also is recognized as a leading advocate for open access over the Internet to the research that appears in scholarly and scientific journals. He has written white papers and has given numerous presentations to university faculty, administrators, and staff around the country on this issue. In addition, he speaks about and promotes publication of open educational resources and open scientific data.

Professor Carroll is a founding member of Creative Commons, Inc. (2001 – 2015), a global organization that provides free, standardized copyright licenses to enable and to encourage legal sharing of creative and other copyrighted works. He remains involved with the Creative Commons USA project at WCL (2015 – present). He also served on the Board of the Public Library of Science (2012 – 2022) and served on the National Research Council’s Board on Research Data and Information (2008–2013).

Prior to joining the WCL faculty, Professor Carroll taught at the Villanova University School of Law (2001–09), and he served as a law clerk to Judge Judith W. Rogers, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Joyce Hens Green, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. He practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (1996–97; 2000–01) (now WilmerHale) in Washington, D.C. Prior to entering law school, Professor Carroll was a journalist in Chicago, a high school teacher in Zimbabwe, and a project assistant at the Africa-America Institute, where he worked on providing election monitoring and election assistance in Africa. He is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Chicago.