Deirdre Mulligan

Deirdre K. Mulligan is a professor of law specializing in privacy and technology at the University of California, Berkeley in the School of Information. She served as Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from 2023 to 2024. In 2016, Mulligan and co-author Kenneth Bamberger received the International Association of Privacy Professionals Leadership Award for their book Privacy on the Ground.

Academic career and advocacy Mulligan's research focuses on the legal and technical means to protect privacy and public interest in the design of technology. She was the founding Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at the Berkeley Law School, and as of February 2026, she is one of the faculty co-directors of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.

After obtaining her JD, Mulligan worked with the Electronic Frontier Foundation before being one of the founding staff at the Center for Democracy and Technology in 1994. She became a professor at UC Berkeley in 2001. They argued that Chief Privacy Officers (CPOs) with boundary-spanning roles are key to accomplish these goals. According to the study, CPOs should mediate "between external privacy demands and internal corporate privacy practices – translating the uncertain and dynamic requirements of privacy as shaped by regulators, advocates, consumers, and peers into corporate strategy and practice" As of December 2025, she is sitting on the California Innovation Council.

Selected publications Mulligan, Deirdre K. (2004). "Reasonable Expectations in Electronic Communications: A Critical Perspective on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act". George Washington Law Review. Mulligan, Deirdre K.; King, Jennifer (2011). "Bridging the Gap between Privacy and Design". University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. Mulligan, Deirdre K.; Schneider, Fred B. (Fall 2011). "Doctrine for Cybersecurity." , Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences : 140 (4) Bamberger, Kenneth A.; Mulligan,Deirdre K. (2011). "Privacy on the Books and on the Ground." Stanford Law Review : 247-315. Mulligan, Deirdre K.; Kroll, Joshua A.; Kohli, Nitin; Wong, Richmond Y. (2019-11-07). "This Thing Called Fairness: Disciplinary Confusion Realizing a Value in Technology". Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 3 (CSCW): 119:1–119:36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3359221 Mulligan, Deirdre K.; Bamberger, Kenneth A. (2021). "Allocating Responsibility in Content Moderation: A Functional Framework". Berkeley Technology Law Journal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z383B5W872