Jeffrey Cunard is a retired partner of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.
He was managing partner of the Washington, D.C. office and led the firm’s corporate intellectual property, information technology and e-commerce practices. He has broad experience in transactions, including software and technology licenses, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and outsourcing arrangements. Mr. Cunard’s practice also encompassed copyright litigation. He was an internationally recognized practitioner in the field of the Internet and cyberlaw, a member of the firm’s Data Strategy & Security practice, and advised in U.S. and international media and telecommunications law, including privatizations and regulatory advice.
Mr. Cunard is the author of, and contributed to, books and articles on communications and intellectual property law, and he speaks widely on both subjects. He co-authored the treatise, Copyright Law: A Practitioner’s Guide (2d ed. 2015), published by Practising Law Institute, and has co-authored the “Obscenity and Indecency,” “Copyright” and “Trademark and Unfair Competition Issues” chapters in Internet and Online Law (K. Stuckey, ed.) (Law Journal Seminars-Press 1999-2010). Annually, Mr. Cunard co-authored a summary of legal developments involving intellectual property and the Internet for the Practising Law Institute’s Communications Law program. He is on the Board of Editors of e-commerce Law & Strategy and is the co-author of two seminal books on international communications law, From Telecommunications to Electronic Services (1986) and The Telecom Mosaic (1988), both published by Butterworths. He also is a major contributor to The Future of Software (1995), published by MIT Press. For several years, he taught a seminar at Harvard Law School, “Practical Lawyering: Internet-Related Issues,” and served as co-director of the Clinical Program at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University.
Mr. Cunard is an active participant in community activities and the arts. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (2001-present; Chair, 2003-2007; Vice Chair, 2010-2015; Secretary, 2015-2019), the Board of Trustees of the Washington National Opera (President, 2018-present), and serves as Secretary of and is on the Board of Directors of Friends of Khmer Culture. He is a past President of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and a past director of Rhizome.org, the Choral Arts Society of Washington, the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and the College Art Association, where he was also long-time counsel.
Mr. Cunard graduated summa cum laude in English and Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1977 and received a J.D. in 1980 from the Yale Law School, where he was an Editor of the Yale Law Journal. After graduation from law school, he served as law clerk to the Hon. Wm. Matthew Byrne, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.