Headshot of Robin Feldman

Robin Feldman

Arthur J. Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Law, Albert Abramson ’54 Distinguished Professor of Law Chair, and Director of the Center for Innovation

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Bio

Professor Robin Feldman is one of the nation’s leading experts in the complex legal areas of intellectual property, health, and medicine. Her work illuminates how and why these practices operate in the pharmaceutical industry’s best interest more often than the public’s and proposes solutions for their improvement. Her current research focuses on drug patents, drug pricing and access, drug markets, and trade secrets. Her work also focuses on the role of intellectual property law in technology, innovation, artificial intelligence, and data.

Image of cover of Drugs, Money, and Secret Handshakes

Feldman is the Arthur J. Goldberg Distinguished Professor of Law, the Albert Abramson ’54 Distinguished Professor of Law Chair, and Director of the UC Law SF Center for Innovation (C4i). Her books, Drugs, Money, & Secret Handshakes: The Unstoppable Growth of Prescription Drug Prices (Cambridge 2019) and Drug Wars: How Big Pharma Raises Prices & Keeps Generics Off the Market (Cambridge 2017), have been influential and well-lauded. Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler called Drugs, Money, & Secret Handshakes, “The book the pharmaceutical industry does not want you to read,” and the chief editor of Outsourced Pharma described it as “one hundred power-packed pages of rich data and sober analysis.”

Feldman has published more than 60 scholarly articles in law journals, including at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, in The New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, and in the American Economic Review. Her op-ed articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, The Hill, and many others. She also authored Rethinking Patent Law (Harvard 2012) and The Role of Science in Law (Oxford 2009).

Professor Feldman testifying before House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

Professor Feldman testifying before House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

Professor Feldman’s work has been cited extensively by the White House, numerous federal and state agencies, members of Congress, and by both sides during the same Supreme Court case. She regularly provides expert testimony and guidance about the pharmaceutical industry, technology, and intellectual property before committees of the US House & Senate, the California legislature, and federal agencies such as the FTC, DOJ, USPTO, and the National Academy of Sciences. Feldman participated in the GAO’s report to Congress on Artificial Intelligence and in the Army Cyber Institute’s threat casting exercise on the weaponization of data. She is also an elected member and appointed advisor to the American Law Institute’s Restatement of Copyright Project.

Feldman is the founder and director of the UC Law SF Center for Innovation (C4i), including its flagship program, Startup Legal Garage. C4i promotes data-driven law-making and seeks to empower policymakers and regulators to make informed, evidence-based decisions, particularly at the intersection of law and technology. Startup Legal Garage, which has been recognized by the American Association of Law Schools as one of the nation’s “Innovative & Outstanding Programs,” provides startups with legal resources, free of charge, through a unique student program guided by attorneys from leading firms.

Professor Feldman has won numerous awards. In 2020, the University of Chicago’s Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics honored her with the Leon I. Goldberg Memorial Lecture Award for her work in pharmaceutical policy and law. Feldman is the first educator from outside the field of medicine to receive the award. In 2015, she was honored by the American Lawyer Publications as one of the Women Leaders in Tech Law, the sole academic to receive the honor. Feldman is also the recipient of the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence, the Visionary Award from the UC Law SF Board of Directors, and the 1066 Foundation Award for Scholarship.

Information on the Center for Innovation, including funding sources, can be found at https://www.uclawsf.edu/academics/centers/center-for-innovation/.

Education

  • Stanford Law School
    J.D., Law

  • Stanford University
    B.A., Undergraduate Studies

Accomplishments

  • Leon I. Goldberg Memorial Lecture Award
    Bestowed by the University of Chicago’s Committee on Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics, for Feldman's "seminal" and "consistently high impact" work in pharmaceutical policy and law.     2020

  • Appointed as Advisor to the American Law Institute Restatement of Copyright
    Elected Member of American Law Institute, 2012     2015 to Present

  • Women Leaders in Law & Technology
    Honored by the American Lawyer Publications as one of the Women Leaders in Law & Technology.     2016

  • Visionary Award
    Presented in 2012 by the UC Law SF Board of Directors for founding the Innovation Law Clinics and the Law & Bioscience Project.     2012

  • Elected Member
    Elected to the American Law Institute; Appointed as advisor to the ALI's Restatement of Copyright Project     2011

  • William Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching
    Awarded by the University of California at Hastings.     2009

  • 1066 Foundation Award for Scholarship
    Awarded by the University of California at Hastings.     2004

Selected Scholarship

Links

Courses

  • Science to Lawyer
  • Startup Legal Garage: Patent
  • IP Concentration Seminar
  • Startup Legal Garage: BioTech

Expertise