Profiles of 2004 Graduating Students

Elliott Davis: Exploring the law on the frontier of digital technology

By Bill Steele

Three years ago, during Cornell freshman orientation, someone told Elliott Davis that "there will always be a job for a person who knows computer science ... and something else."

Senior computer science major Elliott Davis in Olin Library's Libe Café during study week, May 12. Nicola Kountoupes/University Photography

So, after graduation, Davis will put his computer science degree in his back pocket and head off to Harvard Law School.

"I never thought of [majoring in computer science] so much as a career but as a sort of liberal arts major," Davis explained. "A springboard to something else."

The something else turned up in two summer internships with the legal publishing firm LexisNexis. Although his job mostly involved databasing, he got to read the material he was working with and became fascinated by intellectual property law, a field becoming ever more complicated and interesting as computers and digital media continue to overthrow just about everything anyone has thought sacred about copyright law and practice. His interest was solidified when he took a course, The Culture, Law and Politics of the Internet, taught by Tracy Mitrano, an attorney who is Cornell's director of information technology policy. Computer science majors are required to take a three-course specialization in a field outside the major, and Davis took his in intellectual property law.

At Harvard, Davis will work with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He will begin by interning there this summer, working on a project to study Internet filtering -- where certain content is blocked -- in sites ranging from libraries to entire countries. In the longer term he hopes to participate in copyright reform and perhaps work to increase the "level of understanding" of digital technology among politicians.

The son of a surgeon, Davis decided not to pursue a medical career after he nearly fainted while observing his first operation. (But being a lawyer will be OK with his family, he thinks.) While still unsure about his career, he dropped out of Frisch High School in Paramus, N.J., after three years and started taking college courses.

On the side, Davis has been active in raising money for Yad Eliezer, an Israeli charity, and has served for a year as house manager of the Center for Jewish Living.