Chris Ridder teaches D&D and the Law, a simulation-based course that uses tabletop roleplay to develop students’ professional identities and strengthen core lawyering skills. He is a partner at Ridder, Costa & Johnstone LLP, where his practice includes copyright and trademark, privacy and cybersecurity, software and internet law, technology transactions, IP licensing, and AI law. He is also a Non-Residential Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society (CIS).
Before co-founding RCJ, Chris was a Residential Fellow at CIS; practiced at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Fish & Richardson P.C.; and clerked for U.S. District Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer (C.D. Cal.). He has presented at conferences including Black Hat, DEF CON, the IP Scholars Conference, the State Bar of California Annual Meeting, and the Open Source Leadership Summit.
Before law school, Chris was a professional journalist and news editor. He first played Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s.
B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, highest honors.