The Professor Bill Cornish Memorial Lecture 2026 – “About-Face: Deepfakes and the Misuse of Copyright”
19 May @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
The Public Lecture will be held in person.
For those who are unable to attend on-site, a remote attendance option will be available via Zoom.
To join online, please register using the link below:
Register Here – Online Participation
The Professor Bill Cornish Memorial Lecture series was established as an annual event by LSE academics Dr Martin Husovec and Dr Luke McDonagh to honour the late Professor Bill Cornish who passed away in 2022. During the late 1960s Prof Cornish pioneered the teaching of Intellectual Property Law at LSE, becoming the progenitor of intellectual property law scholarship and teaching in the United Kingdom. He spent nearly 30 years at the LSE between 1962 and 1990, from 1970 as a Professor of English Law. His work combined a deep knowledge of English legal history and intellectual property law, with a European and law-in-context outlook on the regulation of markets and technologies. The inaugural Cornish Memorial Lecture was given by Prof. Jane Ginsburg (Columbia) in 2023, the 2024 lecture was given by Prof. Caroline Ncube (University of Cape Town) and the 2025 lecture was delivered by Prof. Pam Samuelson (UC Berkeley). In the next years the lecture series will continue to feature eminent scholars who, like Prof Cornish, have contributed to the study of authorship, creativity, innovation and IP ownership. This year LSE welcomes Prof. Madhavi Sunder (Georgetown) to deliver the lecture.
Speaker: Professor Madhavi Sunder (Frank Sherry Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Georgetown)
Prof Sunder is a widely published and influential scholar of intellectual property law, law and technology, women’s human rights, and international development. Her scholarship is interdisciplinary, straddling private and public law, and engages the global dimensions of law, from patents and access to medicines, to trademarks and university brands. Her book, From Goods to a Good Life: Intellectual Property and Global Justice (Yale University Press 2012) brings a humanist approach to intellectual property law. The author of over 40 articles and book chapters, she has published in Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, University of Michigan Law Review, California Law Review, Texas Law Review, and many other leading law reviews. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Harvard Business Review.
Chairs: Dr Martin Husovec (LSE) and Dr Luke McDonagh (LSE)
Discussant: Prof. Dev Gangjee (Oxford)
This event functions on a first-come, first-served basis. To secure your place, we recommend arriving early.
A drinks reception will also follow this event from 7pm-8pm.
This event is supported by the LSE Law, Technology and Society (LTS) Hub.