Johnson graduated from
Yale College with a
B.A. summa cum laude in 1967. He completed a year of postgraduate study at
University College, Oxford in 1968, and earned a
J.D. from
Yale Law School in 1972. For a year following graduation Johnson clerked for
Malcolm R. Wilkey of the
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Johnson joined
Washington, D.C., law firm
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1973, and became a partner in 1980. His practice focused primarily on the emerging area of electronic commerce, including counseling on issues relating to privacy, domain names and Internet governance issues, jurisdiction, copyright, taxation, electronic contracting, encryption, defamation,
ISP and
OSP liability, regulation, and other intellectual property matters. In 1991 Johnson was a co-founder of the Law Practice Technology Roundtable. In October 1993, coincidental with the move of its main offices from
Cambridge, Massachusetts to D.C., Johnson became a director of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. Johnson departed Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in 1995, and in 1996 co-founded the Cyberspace Law Institute with
David G. Post. He was involved in discussions leading to the Clinton/Gore
Framework for Global Electronic Commerce in 1997. In February 1998 Johnson was appointed as founding director of the
Aspen Institute Internet Policy Project. In the early 2000s, along with Post, Johnson was active in the re-organization of
ICANN – penning several critical papers with
Susan P. Crawford. In 2006 he collaborated with Crawford in the establishment of
OneWebDay. From 2004 to 2009 Johnson held the post of visiting professor at
New York Law School. In May 2009 he commenced a one-year senior fellowship with the
Center for Democracy and Technology. ==Writings==