Michael Geist

Who is Michael Geist?

Michael Allen Geist is a Canadian academic, and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. Geist was educated at the University of Western Ontario where he received his Bachelors of Laws before going on to get his Masters of Laws at both Osgoode Hall Law School and Cambridge University. After that, he attended Columbia Law School where he got his Doctorate in Law.

His weekly columns on new technology and its legal ramifications appear in the Vancouver Sun, Toronto Star and the Ottawa Citizen. He served on Canada's National Task Force on Spam and is the founder of the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic. Geist is active on many boards, including the CANARIE Board of Directors, the CanLII Board of Directors, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada's Expert Advisory Board, the Electronic Frontier Foundation Advisory Board, and on the Information Program Sub-Board of the Open Society Institute. He was also a board member of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, which manages the dot.ca domain, for six years.

Geist was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2002.