Seán O’Connor

Biography

Professor Seán O’Connor (they/them) is the inaugural Allen Grubman Chair in Media and Entertainment Law. An expert in entertainment law, particularly in the music field, Professor O’Connor’s research and practice focus on intellectual property and business law for commercializing innovation in technology and arts.  

Previously, Professor O’Connor was professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and served as faculty director for the Center for Intellectual Property x Innovation Policy (C-IP2) and the founding faculty director for the Innovation Law Clinic. Professor O’Connor formerly taught at the University of Washington School of Law for 16 years, where they led the Center for Advanced Studies and Research on Intellectual Property (CASRIP) and the IP LL.M. program, as well as designed and launched the pioneering Entrepreneurial Law Clinic.  

Widely published in law reviews and journals, they are author of Method+ology and the Means of Innovation (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2025) and editor of the Oxford Handbook on Music Law & Policy (forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2025). They were the editor (with Jonathan Barnett) for 5G and Beyond: Intellectual Property and Competition Policy in the Internet of Things (Cambridge University Press, 2023). Professor O’Connor is also founder and executive director of the Music Ecosystems Institute, Washington, D.C.  

Professor O’Connor received their law degree from Stanford Law School, a master’s degree in philosophy from Arizona State University, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Massachusetts. Before graduate school, they were a singer-songwriter and rock band front person.