2026

Erika Douglas and Lydia de la Torre reinforce Santa Clara Law’s longstanding leadership in privacy law education and research

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sep. 14, 2026—In a sign of the rising importance of privacy law for domains from AI to cybersecurity, data governance, and other technology-related fields, Santa Clara University School of Law has added two experts to its top-ranked privacy law program.

Professor Erika Douglas has joined Santa Clara Law as an associate professor of law and co-supervisor of the Privacy Law Certificate, and longtime Santa Clara Law privacy instructor Lydia de la Torre, LLM ’14 has taken on the additional part-time role of Director of Privacy Initiatives for 2026-27.

Adding Douglas and de la Torre to the team enhances the law school’s longtime leadership in privacy law education. In 2023, Bloomberg Law recognized the law school’s Privacy Law Certificate as one of the top 10 most innovative law programs in the country.

“Santa Clara Law’s location in the heart of Silicon Valley puts it at the epicenter of a revolution in privacy law and policy,” said Dean Michael Kaufman. “The law school continues to dedicate itself to training the next generation of leaders in the privacy law community and engaging with impactful and important privacy law issues.”

De la Torre is the founding partner of Golden Data Law and of counsel at Squire Patton Boggs. Her practice focuses on privacy, data protection, cybersecurity, advertising technology, artificial intelligence, and data governance. She is also the author of The de la Torre Review, an educational resource for students that makes the complex web of  privacy, data protection, and AI law requirements accessible while preserving legal context and nuance. She served as one of the five inaugural board members of the California Privacy Protection Agency, the nation’s first dedicated privacy regulator, which administers and enforces California’s comprehensive consumer privacy law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  Previously, de la Torre was the law school’s inaugural Privacy Fellow, and she earned her LLM in Intellectual Property from Santa Clara Law in 2014. She currently teaches AI Governance at Santa Clara Law.

“Santa Clara has been ahead of the curve in U.S. privacy education since it invested in creating a privacy certificate more than a decade ago,” de la Torre said. “The question now is what it means to be ahead of the curve in 2026. The profession our students are entering is broader, more technical, and increasingly intertwined with AI and data governance. Santa Clara is actively engaged in thinking creatively about what the next generation of privacy education should look like.”

Douglas’s research focuses on how privacy and competition interact, particularly in high tech markets. Her most recent privacy article, M&A Exceptionalism in Privacy Law, published in the  Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, argues that privacy law overlooks the impact of mergers and acquisitions in statutory drafting and in enforcement. Douglas serves in leadership roles for the ABA Antitrust Law section, whose mandate encompasses antitrust, privacy and consumer protection law. Prior to joining Santa Clara, she was a tenured professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, and practiced antitrust law at Covington & Burling LLP in Silicon Valley. Prof. Douglas holds a J.D. from University of Western Ontario and an LL.M. (Law, Science and Technology) from Stanford University. She will be teaching Privacy Law in Spring 2027.

“In our digital world, competition increasingly depends on access to our personal information, in search, social and AI-driven applications,” said Douglas. “My research develops contemporary antitrust and digital regulatory theories that account for both market forces and data privacy—legal approaches that enrich us with the benefits of online life, without assuming we must sacrifice privacy to gain competition or vice versa. I feel privileged to continue this research in the richly knowledgeable privacy community at Santa Clara Law.”

About Santa Clara University School of Law

Santa Clara University School of Law is dedicated to educating lawyers who lead with a commitment to excellence, ethics, and social justice. Santa Clara Law offers students an academically rigorous program including certificates in high tech, international, public interest and social justice, privacy, and sports law, as well as numerous graduate and joint degree options. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Santa Clara Law is nationally distinguished for its faculty engagement, preparation for practice, and top-ranked programs in intellectual property and international law. For more information, see law.scu.edu.

Media Contact

Pamela Nonga Ngue | Santa Clara Law Marketing & Communications | pnongangue@scu.edu | 408-551-1763