$ Jacob Leiken
Technology Law Student. Former Software Engineer. NYU JD '25. Brown University '20.
Welcome to my website! This site emulates a terminal, so if you just want the information without figuring out how to use it, click here. For the full interactive experience, try typing "help" in the box below then hitting the enter key.
For an interactive version of this site, tap or click here.$ about
about
While I loved my time as a software engineer, I quickly decided it would not be my whole career. I've always wanted to work in public interest over corporate, but I still wanted to use my knowledge about technology. I believe law is the best field for that intersection. So, I now am a student at NYU Law and recipient of the Desmarais Law and Technology Scholarship. At school, I'm Senior Online Editor on the Journal of Law and Public Policy, web designer and a student fellow for the Privacy Research Group, and a research assistant for Professor Sunoo Park. As a 2L, I was president of Rights over Tech, and an intake manager for the Suspension Representation Project.
$ work
hausfeld
Summer, Fall 2024
In the summer between my 2L and 3L years and in the fall of my 3L year, I was a Summer Associate and Law Clerk at Hausfeld LLP, a global plaintiff law firm. I will be a summer associate at Hausfeld LLP. I drafted legal research memos across all the firm's practice areas including antitrust, environmental, data privacy, and human rights cases. I also wrote sections and created informational graphics for an antitrust complaint against a large technology company.
new york attorney general
Summer 2023
In the summer between my 1L and 2L years, I interned in Bureau of Internet and Technology at the New York Office of the Attorney General. I drafted a complaint for a special proceeding against a large technology company. I researched and communicated possible charges to the attorneys on case. I also drafted investigatory correspondence and settlement agreements over data breaches and illegal subscription practices. Finally, I conducted legal research relating to insurance and personal jurisdiction.
microsoft
August 2020 - August 2022
For two years I worked as a full-time Software Engineer on Microsoft's Test Automation Platform team. I on-boarded the Windows Servicing department to my team's services, saving tens of thousands of dollars a month in person hours. This enabled faster, more secure releases of Windows. I also became my team's infrastructure and recoverability expert.
microsoft
Summer 2018 and Summer 2019
As a Software Engineering Intern in 2018 I worked on Intune for Android. I developed an open source
Android
example app demonstrating my team's SDK and fixed bugs.
More information available below or by typing the command
projects taskr
As a Software Engineering Intern in 2019 I worked on Windows Accessibility. I added features to
Narrator,
Window's screen reader, and participated in an award-winning Hackathon team.
amazon
Summer 2017
As an Amazon Future Engineer I developed Alexa skills to help Amazon Sellers during the fulfillment process.
brown department of computer science
May 2017 to May 2020
I was a teaching assistant then head teaching assistant for CSCI 0190: An Accelerated Introduction to Computer Science, CSCI 0320: Intro to Software Eng, and a teaching assistant for CSCI 1730: Programming Languages. As a teaching assistant, I developed assignments, graded, held office hours, and taught labs. As a head teaching assistant, I performed the previous duties while managing the rest of the (up to 25 person) teaching assistant staff.
$ publications
e2ee ai
Fall 2024
How To Think About End-To-End Encryption and AI: Training, Processing, Disclosure, and Consent. I contributed the US legal analysis as a research assistant for Professor Sunoo Park.
satellite fso
Fall 2023 - Fall 2024
Satellite Internet and Laser Links: Are Universal FSO Standards Needed?. Originally written as a research paper for Space and Planetary Law and Governance, I revised it with the help of NYU's Journal of Legislation and Public Policy for publication as a student note in the Journal's 26th volume.
data governance and climate change
Fall 2023
Future-Proofing Data Governance to Prepare for Climate Change. I drafted the abstract for this talk as a legal extern at Development Gateway: An IREX Venture, under the supervision of Beverley Hatcher-Mbu and Tom Orrell.
$ projects
ragdoll run
May 2020 - 2023
In the time in between my graduation and start at Microsoft,
I decided to fulfill my childhood dream of publishing an app. In about a month,
I developed Ragdoll Run, which was formerly available on the App Store. I let the
registration lapse when I ceased development during law school. The code is still
available on GitHub
I built it using Apple's SpriteKit framework in addition to StoreKit, CloudKit, and
Google AdMob. It fully supports iPhone, iPad, and iMessage. 50% of revenue from
in-app purchases and ads was donated to non-profits.
taskr
May 2018 - August 2018
I was a Software Engineering Intern on
Intune's
mobile app management (MAM) team for Android. They develop an SDK that allows IT
pros to make tightly managed apps. I made an example app demonstrating how to use
this SDK called Taskr. Taskr is open source and available on
GitHub.
I finished this project in half of my internship, so I spent the rest of the
time fixing bugs on sprints with my team. I specifically focused on bugs that
had arisen from multi-process Android apps.
equisat
September 2016 - May 2020

Brown Space Engineering is are dedicated to making space more accessible for
people of all backgrounds. Following our schematics, anyone can make a satellite
for only $3,776. Successfully deployed on July 13th, 2018, EQUiSat is the first
satellite to test LiFePO
batteries in space and its four LEDs are visible by the naked eye. I worked
on organizing satellite operations using FreeRTOS
and optimizing data transmission, especially error packaging.
I became project manager and co-president in 2018, so in addition to coordinating satellite
operations and managing our over 75 members, I led the design of our
next CubeSat, PVDX. I was responsible for communication with NASA, the University,
and any other external entity.
For more information, you can visit the team website here.
View our team GitHub here.
wikispeedia
March - May 2017
The Wikipedia game is an old
standby for bored teens, but it's rarely done right. For my final project for
CS 32 at Brown, my group and I decided to perfect this age-old game.
I worked on the user experience, including lobby experience,
site-wide design, and graphic design. I also set up hosting so anyone can play online.
Want to play the game yourself? You can play
here! Since it is hosted on Heroku's
free tier, please give the app a few seconds to start up.
You can view the code on our
project GitHub repo.
this-site
Work in progress
Since mid 2016, I've been continuously redesigning jleiken.com, this website. In this most recent iteration, I decided to mimic the experience of using a terminal. The static version, for mobile and visitors unfamiliar with terminals, serves as a template for the terminal version. The site is hosted on Github Pages. If you're interested in how I wrote this site, you can view the source code on Github.
$ classes
law
AI and the Criminal Legal System | Fall 2024 |
Antitrust Law | Spring 2024 |
Information Privacy Law | Spring 2024 |
Global Data Law | Fall 2023 |
Space and Planetary Law and Governance | Fall 2023 |
Constitutional Law | Fall 2023 |
Survey of IP | Spring 2023 |
Criminal Law | Fall 2022 |
undergraduate computer science and engineering classes
CSCI 1670 | Operating Systems |
CSCI 1470 | Deep Learning |
CSCI 1680 | Computer Networks |
CSCI 1730 | Design and Implementation of Programming Languages |
CSCI 1660 | Intro to Computer Systems Security |
CSCI 1951-S | Virtual Reality Software Review |
CLPS 1250 | Human Factors Design |
ENGN 1760 | Design of Space Systems |
CSCI 1650 | Software Security and Exploitation |
CSCI 1300 | User Interfaces and User Experience |