Quick Facts
Biography
Philip Jacob ("Phil") Weiser is the Hatfield Professor of Law and Telecommunications, Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, and Dean Emeritus at the University of Colorado Law School. He previously served in the Obama and Clinton Administrations in the White House and Justice Department. He is also a candidate for Attorney General for the State of Colorado in the 2018 election.
Biography
Weiser holds a bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College with high honors, and a law degree from the New York University School of Law, with Order of the Coif honors, where he was an Articles Editor for the New York University Law Review. After graduating, Weiser served as law clerk to Judge David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals from September 1994 to August 1995. He was then a law clerk to Justices Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U.S. Supreme Court from September 1995 to August 1996. Following his clerkships, he was senior counsel to Joel Klein, the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Antitrust Division from 1996 to 1998.
In 1999, Weiser joined the University of Colorado Boulder Law School as a professor of law and telecommunications. There, Weiser established the national center of excellence in telecommunications and technology law and founded the Journal on Telecommunications & High Technology Law. He also founded the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship and he wrote and taught in the areas of competition policy, innovation policy, and Internet policy.
In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Weiser as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. He took the post in July 2009, taking a leave of absence from the University of Colorado Law School. In 2010, President Obama named him senior advisor for technology and innovation to the National Economic Council Director, and he participated in a series of policy initiatives.
From June 2011 through July 2016, Weiser served as the 15th Dean of the University of Colorado Law School. During his time as Dean he was named one of the National Jurist's most influential leaders in legal education. Through the Silicon Flatirons Center, Weiser developed a range of programs to build up CU Boulder’s support for entrepreneurship and has linked it to the local startup community. Some of the initiatives include Tech Lawyer Accelerator, the Corporate Counsel Intensive Institute and the Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative.
Civic activities
Weiser is a member of the Democratic party. His two areas of focus are environmental protections and consumer advocacy. He also serves as the Secretary of the CareerWise Colorado Board.
Personal life
Weiser is one of two sons born to a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States at a young age. His mother was born in a German concentration camp before coming to the United States at age six.
On November 10, 2002, Weiser married Heidi Wald, a physician, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and they have two children.
Selected publications
Books
- Phil Weiser & Jon Nuechterlein, Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age (MIT Press 2013) ISBN 9780262140911.
- Phil Weiser, Stuart Benjamin, Howard Shelanski & James Speta, Telecommunications Law and Policy (Carolina Academic Press 2012) ISBN 978-1-61163-691-8.
- Phil Weiser, The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation (Oxford ExUniversity Press 2010) ISBN 0195377311.