Nancy S. Kim is the inaugural Michael Paul Galvin Chair in Entrepreneurship and Applied Legal Technology. Professor Kim's scholarship focuses on consent, contracts, privacy, and the effect of technology on society, and she has written dozens of scholarly articles and essays on these subjects. She is also the author of the books, Consentability: Consent and Its Limits (Cambridge University Press, 2019); The Fundamentals of Contract Law and Clauses (Edward Elgar, 2016); and Wrap Contracts: Foundations and Ramifications (Oxford University Press, 2013). Her work has been the subject of several symposia and conference panels, including a special issue of the Southwestern Law Review (Vol. 44, No. 2, Spring 2014), and a symposium issue of the Loyola Law Review (vol 66, No. 1, Spring 2020). Professor Kim’s scholarship has been cited by federal courts and in legal treatises, and she is a frequently quoted in the media, including the New York Times, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, and Popular Mechanics.
Professor Kim received her J.D. degree from the UC Berkeley School of Law where she was an associate editor of the California Law Review, and her LL.M. degree from the UCLA School of Law where she was a Ford Foundation Fellow. Kim was also a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Rhetoric and a minor in French.
After law school, Professor Kim worked in the business and legal departments of several Silicon Valley based technology companies, including as Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs of a global software and services company. She was also an associate in the corporate law departments at Heller, Ehrman in San Francisco and Gunderson, Dettmer in Menlo Park.
Prior to joining the Chicago-Kent faculty, Kim was the Proflowers Distinguished Professor of Internet Studies and Professor of Law at California Western School of Law and a visiting professor at the Rady School of Management, UC San Diego. She has also visited at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Victoria University School of Law, Wellington, New Zealand. Nancy Kim is an elected member of the American Law Institute, former Chair of both the Association of American Law Schools Section on Contracts and the Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law, and former Chair of the ABA Subcommittee on Commercial and Consumer Contracts. She is a member of the Permanent Editorial Board of the Uniform Commercial Code. Kim is a licensed attorney with the State Bar of California and the author of two novels. She is a past recipient of the California State Bar’s Wiley M. Manuel Award for pro bono services for her work with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center.
Education
LL.M., University of California, Los Angeles
J.D., University of California, Berkeley School of Law
B.A., University of California, Berkeley
Publications
Articles
A Taxonomy of Adhesive Terms, 53 SETON HALL LAW REVIEW (2022)
Beyond Section 230 Liability for Facebook, ST. JOHN’S LAW REVIEW (2022)
Developments in Digital “Wrap” Contracts, 77 THE BUSINESS LAWYER 275 (Winter 2021-2022)
Ideology, Coercion, and the Proposed Restatement of Consumer Contracts, 32 LOYOLA CONSUMER L. REV. 456 (2020)
New Developments in Digital and Wrap Contracts, 71 THE BUSINESS LAWYER 349 (Winter 2020-2021)
Revisiting the License v. Sale Conundrum, 54 LOYOLA OF LOS ANGELES LAW REVIEW 101 (2020).
Author Response: What Does it Mean to Consent? 66 LOYOLA L. REV. 145 (2020)
New Developments in Digital and Wrap Contracts (2019-2020), THE BUSINESS LAWYER, Vol. 75, (Winter 2019-2020)
The Faulty Foundation of the Draft Restatement of Consumer Contracts, (co-authored with Adam J. Levitin, Christina L. Kunz, Peter Linzer, Patricia McCoy, Juliet M. Moringiello, Elizabeth Renuart and Lauren Willis), 36 YALE J. REG. 447 (2019)
In Re Marriage of Witten: Subordinating Contracts to ‘Public Policy, 45 FLA. ST. L. REV. 996 (2018) (part of anthology of best and worst contract decisions).
Relative Consent and Contract Law, 18 NEV. L. J. 165 (2017)
Online Contracting: New Developments, THE BUSINESS LAWYER, Vol. 72, (Winter 2016-2017)
Internet Giants as Quasi-Governmental Entities and the Limits of Contractual Consent (with D.A. Jeremy Telman), 80 MO. L. REV. 723 (2015)
Situational Duress and the Aberrance of Electronic Contracts, 89 CHI-KENT L. REV. 265 (2014)
Website Design and Liability, 52 JURIMETRICS 383 (Summer 2012)
Contract’s Adaptation and the Online Bargain, 79 U. CIN. L. REV. 1327 (2011)
Reasonable Expectations in Socio-Cultural Context, 45 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 641 (2010)
Expanding the Scope of the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts to Include Digital Content, 84 TUL. L. REV. 1595 (2010)
Website Proprietorship and Online Harassment, 2009 UTAH L. REV. 993
Imposing Tort Liability on Websites for Cyber Harassment, 118 YALE L. J. POCKET PART 115 (2008)
The Software Licensing Dilemma, 2008 BYU L. REV. 1103
Mistakes, Changed Circumstances and Intent, 56 U. KAN. L. REV. 473 (2008)
Books
Books
DEATH BY A THOUSAND CLICKS (under contract with Cambridge University Press).
THE CAMBRIDGE HANDBOOK ON EMERGING ISSUES AT THE INTERSECTION OF COMMERCIAL LAW AND TECHNOLOGY (co-edited with Prof. Stacy-Ann Elvy) (under contract with Cambridge University Press).
CONSENTABILITY: CONSENT AND ITS LIMITS (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
THE FUNDAMENTALS OF CONTRACT LAW AND CLAUSES: A PRACTICAL APPROACH, (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016)
WRAP CONTRACTS: FOUNDATIONS AND RAMIFICATIONS (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Book Chapters
Wrap Contracting and the Online Environment: Causes and Cures, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE LAW (ed. John A. Rothchild) (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016)
The Duty to Draft Reasonably and Online Contracts, in COMMERCIAL CONTRACT LAW: A TRANSATLANTIC PERSPECTIVE (eds. Larry DiMatteo, Keith Rowley, Severine Saintier, and George Zhou) (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Selected Media Appearances
Axios, Jacob Knutsen, 23andMe changes terms of service to prevent lawsuits after data breach, (December 7, 2023); 23andMe changes terms of service to prevent lawsuits after data breach
Op-Ed: Biden's executive order on AI is ambitious—and Incomplete, LOS ANGELES TIMES, (November 17, 2023); Op-Ed: Biden's executive order on AI is ambitious—and Incomplete
Planet Money/NPR, Emma Peaslee, Jeff Guo, and Jess Jiang, and James Sneed, Surprise, you just signed a contract! How hidden contracts took over the internet, (July 14, 2023); Surprise, you just signed a contract! How hidden contracts took over the internet
Regulate social media? California still has a plan for that, LOS ANGELES TIMES, (August 25, 2022); Op-Ed: Regulate social media? California still has a plan for that - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
Op-Ed: How Facebook can be held accountable: Web platforms should be liable for harmful products, LOS ANGELES TIMES, (November 13, 2021); https: Op-Ed: Think Facebook is invincible? Here's how the social media giant can be held accountable - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
WGN9, Kristina Miller, What you need to know about the IRS facial scan requirement, (Feb. 3, 2022); What you need to know about the IRS facial scan requirement | WGN-TV (wgntv.com)
Esquire, Justin Kirkland, Do You Know What You Sign Away When You Click ‘I Agree’?, (Jan. 28, 2022); Do You Know What You Sign Away When You Click 'I Agree'? (esquire.com)
The New York Times, The Editorial Board, What Happens When You Click ‘Agree’?, (Jan. 23, 2021); Opinion | With Online Terms of Service, What Happens When You Click 'Agree'? - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
NPR/WBUR program Here & Now, How Companies Can Invoke Force Majeure in a Pandemic, interview with Robin Young; (May 6, 2020); https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/05/06/force-majeure-contracts-pandemic
Marketplace Tech/NPR, interview with Molly Wood, We Might Not See the Effects of the Equifax Breach for Years, (Sept. 20, 2017); https://www.marketplace.org/2017/09/20/tech/we-might-not-see-effects-equifax-breach-years
NBC San Diego, New Law Protects Online Reviewers (Sept. 11, 2014); https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Online-Reviews-Offered-Legal-Protection-274836381.html
NPR/WBUR program Here & Now, What Are You Agreeing To In Online Contracts? interview with Jeremy Hobson (August 6, 2014); https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2014/08/06/wrap-contracts-privacy
NBC San Diego, The Truth Behind Hidden Contracts (July 16, 2014); https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Truth-Behind-Hidden-Contracts-267429891.html
