Education

Teaching

• Law 558 Information Privacy Law
• Law 512 Legal Skills III

Teaching

Programs

Programs

• Juris Doctor & Master of Public Policy JD, MPP

Teaching

Courses

Research

Research interests

• Privacy law and policy and the empirical analysis of legal writing.

Professional background

Before joining UMass Law, Professor Spencer was a Lecturer at Harvard Law School and an Adjunct Professor at Boston College Law School. In addition, Professor Spencer worked as a litigation associate at Boston’s Bingham, Dana & Gould and later founded his own firm specializing in civil appellate practice and employment litigation.  

Publications

Books

Massachusetts Legal Research, Second Edition (Carolina Academic Press 2016) (co-author with E. Joan Blum).

Articles and Book Chapters

Alternatives to Content Moderation: Social Media Labeling Mandates and the Zauderer Test, ___ UMKC L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2024).

The First Amendment and the Regulation of Speech Intermediaries, 106 Marq. L. Rev. 1 (2022).

Two First Amendment Futures: Consumer Privacy Law and the Deregulatory First Amendment, 2020 Mich. St. L. Rev. 897.

The Problem of Online Manipulation, 2020 U. Ill. L. Rev. 959.

Digital Disruption: Potential Fourth Amendment Approaches to Predictive Surveillance, 46:2 Search & Seizure Law Report 15 (2019).

Words Count: The Empirical Relationship Between Brief Writing and Summary Judgment Success, 22 Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute 61 (2018).

Predictive Surveillance and the Threat to Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, 14 I/S: Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society 109 (2017).

Predictive Analytics, Consumer Privacy, and E-Commerce, in Research Handbook on Electronic Commerce Law (John A. Rothchild ed., Edward Elgar Publishing 2016). 

When Targeting Becomes Secondary: A Framework for Regulating Predictive Surveillance in Anti-Terrorism Investigations, 92 Denv. U. L. Rev. 493 (2016).

Privacy and Predictive Analytics in E-Commerce, 49 N.E. L. Rev. 102 (2015).

Data Aggregation and the Fourth Amendment, 19 J. Internet L. 13 (Oct. 2015).

Using Empirical Analysis to Study Legal Writing, 20 Legal Writing: Journal of the Legal Writing Institute 141 (2015).

The Aggregation Principle and the Future of Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence, 41 N.E. J. Civ. & Crim. Confinement 289 (2015).

The Surveillance Society and the Third-Party Privacy Problem, 65 S.C. L. Rev. 373 (2013).

Reasonable Expectations and the Erosion of Privacy, in Studies on Privacy in Contemporary America: The Definition, Typology, Basis and Analytic Method of Privacy in America 457 (Zhang Min an ed., Sun Yat-sen University Press 2013).

GPS Monitoring Device Leads the Supreme Court to a Crossroads in Privacy Law, 46 New Eng. L. Rev. On Remand 45 (2012).

Preserving Appellate Rights When Moving for Reconsideration, Mass. L. W, Aug. 30, 2010, at 39.

Wage Act Claims: The SJC giveth, and the SJC Taketh Away, Mass. L. W., Nov. 21, 2005, at 55.

Dr. King, Bull Connor, and Persuasive Narratives, 2 J. Assoc. Leg. Writing Directors 209 (2004).

Nevada Case Threatens to Expand Terry Stops, 48 Boston Bar. J. 27 (2004).

Security Versus Privacy: Reframing the Debate, 79 Denv. U. L. Rev. 519 (2002).

Reasonable Expectations and the Erosion of Privacy, 39 San Diego L. Rev. 845 (2002).

CyberSLAPP Suits and John Doe Subpoenas: Balancing Anonymity and Accountability in Cyberspace, 19 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 493 (2001).

Latest from Shaun

Mentioned in

• Jan 17, 2024 UMass Law students publish and present their research in law journals and at an international conference
• Jan 6, 2023 Shaun Spencer examines a new era of law, technology, and privacy