Brett G. Johnson will be a 2L at the University of Iowa College of Law in the fall of 2022. Prior to enrolling at UI, Johnson worked for seven years as a professor of media and communications law at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, achieving the rank of Associate Professor (with tenure) in 2021. As a faculty member at MU, Johnson’s research focused on how digital media have disrupted traditional First Amendment theories and doctrines, as well as international and comparative analyses of laws on platform liability for third-party content. In 2020, Johnson enrolled as a part-time student at the University of Missouri School of Law, and finished his 1L coursework in spring 2022.
Now returning to law school as a full-time student, Johnson hopes to turn his scholarly endeavors on communications law issues into advocacy. An Iowa native, Johnson hopes to build a career representing small news outlets in the state, and be a leading voice in pushing for state legislation on protecting Iowans’ data privacy, expanding access to broadband in rural parts of the state, and fighting SLAPPs against small news outlets. He also hopes to one day create a media law clinic at the UI College of Law to get law students interested in media and communications law issues, especially at the local level. In the meantime, Johnson will continue teaching courses in media law part-time to undergraduates while he earns his JD.