The privacy law profession is growing tremendously, but there is a challenge that we’re facing, one that I’d like to enlist your help in addressing – the bottleneck problem.  There is a huge bottleneck at the entry point to the field.  So I am calling on organizations to address this bottleneck by offering fellowships to recent law school graduates interested in privacy law.

Each year, I teach about 60-70 privacy law students, and there are many other professors teaching similar courses with large enrollments.  Many great students want to enter the field, but they find it very hard to do so because nearly every position requires a number of years of experience.

Unlike other field with a more developed entry point, privacy lacks an easy way in.  People have to do all sorts of career gymnastics to lateral sideways or slip in from other areas.  A while ago, I solicited advice on entering the profession and provided advice of my own, and I posted about it in my post, How to Enter the Privacy Profession.

On the other side, many organizations are seeking to fill privacy law positions but are having a hard time finding enough people with experience.

A Call to Create Privacy Law Fellowships

The privacy profession must address the bottleneck problem and develop a reliable pathway to the profession.

I am therefore calling on companies and organizations to create privacy law fellowships that would last 1-2 years.   If you create one, I will list it in my list of privacy law fellowships. Right now, the list is short, and most of the opportunities are in NGOs and the government, with a handful from the private sector.  I’d like to triple or quadruple this list . . . and hopefully make it even longer than that.

So if you’re on the privacy team at an organization, please look into creating a fellowship position.  If you’re a privacy law professor, please join in my call.  A mature profession needs an entry point and a reliable pathway.  It’s time to make that happen for privacy law.

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