Dennis Hirsch, B.A., J.D.

• BA, Columbia University
• JD, Yale University

Dennis Hirsch is a Professor at The Ohio State University where he holds a joint appointment in the Moritz College of Law and the Department of Computer Science and is a core faculty member of the Translational Data Analytics Institute. He directs the OSU Program on Data and Governance which focuses on the governance of advanced analytics and AI, and co-directs the OSU Responsible Data Science Community of Practice, a community of over 100 researchers focused on the ethical and just use of advanced analytics and AI.  Professor Hirsch teaches courses on privacy law, property law, and on the law, policy, ethics, and management of AI.

A graduate of Yale Law School, Professor Hirsch is a recognized expert on the governance of advanced analytics and AI, having testified on this topic before the US Senate Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law and before the Federal Trade Commission. His 2020 Maryland Law Review article was one of the inspirations for a bill introduced in the US Senate: the Algorithmic Fairness Act of 2020. Professor Hirsch was the Principal Investigator for an Ohio State research study on business data ethics management. He subsequently founded the Ohio Data Ethics Working Group for organizations seeking to improve their data ethics management programs. He has published dozens of articles and book chapters, and an award-winning book, and has given more than 100 scholarly presentations. In 2010, he served as Fulbright Senior Professor at the University of Amsterdam where he taught privacy law and researched Dutch data protection codes of conduct. He returns to the University of Amsterdam each summer to teach in its Summer Course on Privacy Law and Policy. 

Professor Hirsch has served as Chair of the AALS Committee on Defamation and Privacy, Reporter for the Uniform Law Commission Drafting Committee on Employee and Student Privacy, member of the Ohio Attorney General’s Task Force on Facial Recognition, member of the Smart Columbus Privacy and Data Security Board, and as Associate Dean for Faculty and Student Development at Capital University Law School (2005-2007) where he served on the faculty. He practiced law with Sidley Austin and with Porter Wright Morris & Arthur.