Representing The Future

Our student attorneys work at the edge of technology and law, for the people building what's next.

Who We Are

BLIP is a modern, technology-oriented law firm that happens to live inside a law school.

Since 2008, we've trained a new generation of lawyers to represent the ventures pushing the edge of law and technology: emerging tech, internet, communications, and ideas the law hasn't caught up to yet.

Our students learn the craft of representing startups, and they work on the tech policy shaping those startups' futures, advocating in legislative, regulatory, and courtroom fights, often on questions no court has answered before.

To date, BLIP has helped more than 1,000 clients with legal, business, and policy challenges.

We take on clients who need creative legal representation, whose work arguably advances the internet or the digital economy, and for whom the cost of a private lawyer would be a wall they couldn't climb. We've handled incorporation, intellectual property protection, licensing agreements, web documentation, litigation support, and general legal advice.

We choose clients partly for how well the work will train our students, and we don't presume one client or cause is more worthy than another. We do favor work that advances the internet, the digital economy, or intellectual property law. And we only take clients who couldn't otherwise afford private counsel and whose ideas would struggle to become sustainable businesses without legal support. When we can, we represent Brooklyn Law students and their collaborators building ventures of their own. It's paid off for both sides, and several BLIP graduates have gone on to build companies of their own. Our students come from everywhere: engineering, applied sciences, the social sciences, the humanities. Many worked in tech, media, or government before law school. They share a commitment to law and policy in an internet-enabled world.

BLIP alumni are in big law, boutique firms, nonprofits, government agencies, academia, in-house roles, and their own startups. For prospective students: BLIP looks for people set on becoming technology-oriented attorneys. A course in corporations, intellectual property, or policy advocacy is a prerequisite; the patent team also requires patent law. Background in telecommunications, internet, copyright, patent, trademark, trade secrets, media law, antitrust, nonprofit, or administrative law helps.

PRACtICE AREAS

71 percent of low-income households experienced a civil legal problem in 2016.

1 in 4 dealt with six or more, including 67 percent of households with survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault.

86 percent of those problems received inadequate legal help, or none.

Justice Lab is BLIP's public-interest arm. While the clinic represents founders, Justice Lab builds the tools and resources that widen access to justice for people who can't afford a lawyer at all. Low-income Americans face a wide gap in getting legal aid.

The internet can start to close it. Right now there's no single trusted place that collects the good apps, resources, and pro bono help people actually need. A search turns up ads and scattered single-issue links instead of real answers.

Building on BLIP's work and our students' and alumni's projects, we launched the Access to Justice Initiative Initiative to "facilitate aid for populations facing adversity," and we're building support for it among academics, federal judges, organizations, and foundations working in the field.

the Wisconsin Expungement Eligibility Project →

Check whether a criminal offense on your Wisconsin record may qualify to be expunged.

The New York Restaurant Paycheck Checker →

Check whether you're being paid correctly under New York's tipped restaurant-wage rules.

New York Family Law Navigator →

Build a free, tailored report to guide you through your New York family law question.

First To Disclose →

Browse an open repository that helps inventors defend ideas from big-tech patents.

JONATHAN ASKIN
Professor of Clinical Law; Director of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy (BLIP) Clinic

Professor Askin is the Founder/Director of the Brooklyn Law Incubator & Policy Clinic (BLIP), the Faculty Chair and Innovation Catalyst for the Center for Urban Business Entrepreneurship (CUBE), and the Founder of the Brooklyn Justice Lab. He founded the BLIP Clinic when he joined Brooklyn Law School in 2008.

Professor Askin's teaching and activities have focused on using new technology to advance social, economic, and environmental justice and morphing the law to better suit the needs of society and next-generation ventures in the digital age.

Professor Askin has also served as a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and Codex Affiliated Faculty at Stanford Law School, in addition to serving as a Visiting Professor at the MIT Media Lab, a Fulbright Scholar with the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law, a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London, a Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, and Founder/Advisor to iLINC, a network of legal support clinics for the European startup community.

He chaired the Internet Governance Working Group for the Obama '08 Presidential Campaign, served on the Biden '20 Presidential Campaign Technology Committee and on the Eric Adams '21 Mayoral Campaign Tech Committee, as well as serving as lead counsel and on the boards of many communications and Internet ventures, industry associations, and consumer advocacy groups.

He is an honors grad of both Harvard College and Rutgers Law School, where he was Notes and Comments Editor for the Rutgers Law Review. After law school, he clerked for Chief Justice Robert Wilentz of the New Jersey Supreme Court and practiced as an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell and as a Deputy Public Advocate for the State of New Jersey. He has served as a board member to many industry groups, including the Universal Service Administrative Company, the North American Numbering Counsel, and the New York Chapter of the Internet Society, and has served as Chair of the Voice on the Net Coalition, as executive director of the Video on the Net Alliance, as president and founder of the Global IP Alliance, and as inaugural Chair of the CyberSpace Committee of the Federal Communications Bar Association.

He is a frequent commenter in the media about Internet, communications, and technology-related issues. Professor Askin is a sought-after expert in the field of Internet law. He is actively involved in developing Brooklyn as a leading 21st century tech hub for innovative start-ups. Over the years, he has provided legal and policy counsel and strategic advice for companies, non-profits, and public interest organizations that focus on building and developing Internet and technology-oriented enterprises and startups.

Now let's talk about you.

You know who we are and how we work. Tell us what you're building, and we'll see how we can help, at no cost.