Julia Powles is a law professor and the Executive Director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy at the UCLA School of Law and Samueli School of Engineering, and Director of Tech Policy for the University-wide initiative, UCLA DataX. She researches and teaches in the areas of privacy, intellectual property, internet governance, and the law and politics of data, automation, and artificial intelligence. Prior to joining UCLA, Prof. Powles was the founding Director of the UWA Tech & Policy Lab and Associate Professor of Law and Technology at the University of Western Australia. She previously held academic appointments at Cornell Tech, New York University, and the University of Cambridge, and worked at The Guardian, Minderoo Foundation, World Intellectual Property Organization, and MinterEllison.

Professor Powles earned a Ph.D. in Law from the University of Cambridge and a Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford. She also holds Bachelor’s degrees in Science and Law, with First Class Honors, from the Australian National University and University of Western Australia. After Law School, she clerked on the Federal Court of Australia and Commonwealth Administrative Appeals Tribunal.