Rebecca Tushnet

Rebecca Tushnet (born April 4, 1973) is the inaugural Frank Stanton Professor of First Amendment Law at Harvard Law School and an American copyright, trademark, First Amendment, and false advertising legal scholar. In addition to her general scholarship, Tushnet is known for her fanfiction-related scholarship[1] and her legal advocacy work for the Organization for Transformative Works, a nonprofit fandom-related project that supports fanworks (such as fanfiction) through preservation and advocacy.[2][3]

Tushnet was a policy debater at Harvard, getting to finals of the National Debate Tournament in 1992 and 1995,[4] she received an A.B. from Harvard University in 1995, and earned her J.D. from Yale Law School[5] in 1998.[6] Tushnet served as a law clerk to Judge Edward Roy Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and later for Justice David Souter of the United States Supreme Court. She practiced at Debevoise & Plimpton. Tushnet then entered teaching, first at NYU School of Law (2002–04),[6] then at Georgetown University Law Center (2004–16),[5] and most recently at Harvard Law School.[7] In practice, Tushnet has represented fans in copyright and trademark disputes with rightsholders.[8]

Her father is Mark Tushnet and her mother is Elizabeth Alexander, who directs the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.[9] Her sister Eve Tushnet is a lesbian Catholic author and blogger.[10]