$ Jacob Leiken
Technology Law Student. Former Software Engineer. NYU JD '25. Brown University '20.
For an interactive version of this site, tap here. It is hidden by default on smaller screen sizes.$ about
about
While I loved my time as a software engineer, I quickly decided it would not be my whole career. I've always wanted to work in public interest over corporate, but I still wanted to use my knowledge about technology. I believe law is the best field for that intersection. So, I now am a student at NYU Law and recipient of the Desmarais Law and Technology Scholarship. At school, I'm a web designer and student fellow for the Privacy Research Group, president of Rights over Tech, and an intake manager for the Suspension Representation Project. I am also a staff editor on the Journal of Law and Public Policy.
$ work
hausfeld
Summer 2024
In the summer between my 2L and 3L years, I will be a summer associate at Hausfeld LLP. Hausfeld is a global plaintiff law firm that handles complex litigation, including antitrust, environmental, technology, and human rights cases.
new york attorney general
Summer 2023
In the summer between my 1L and 2L years, I interned in Bureau of Internet and Technology at the New York Office of the Attorney General. I drafted a complaint for a special proceeding against a large technology company. I researched and communicated possible charges to the attorneys on case. I also drafted investigatory correspondence and settlement agreements over data breaches and illegal subscription practices. Finally, I conducted legal research relating to insurance and personal jurisdiction.
microsoft
August 2020 - August 2022
For two years I worked as a full-time Software Engineer on Microsoft's Test Automation Platform team. I on-boarded the Windows Servicing department to my team's services, saving tens of thousands of dollars a month in person hours. This enabled faster, more secure releases of Windows. I also became my team's infrastructure and recoverability expert.
microsoft
Summer 2018 and Summer 2019
As a Software Engineering Intern in 2018 I worked on Intune for Android. I developed an open source
Android
example app demonstrating my team's SDK and fixed bugs.
More information available below or by typing the command
projects taskr
As a Software Engineering Intern in 2019 I worked on Windows Accessibility. I added features to
Narrator,
Window's screen reader, and participated in an award-winning Hackathon team
amazon
Summer 2017
As an Amazon Future Engineer I developed Alexa skills to help Amazon Sellers during the fulfillment process
brown department of computer science
May 2017 to May 2020
I TAed and HTAed for CSCI 0190: An Accelerated Introduction to Computer Science, TAed and HTAed for CSCI 0320: Intro to Software Eng, and TAed for CSCI 1730: Programming Languages. I managed students and TAs, developed assignments, graded, held office hours, and taught labs
$ projects
ragdoll run
May 2020 - Active Development
In the time in between my graduation and start at Microsoft,
I decided to fulfill my childhood dream of publishing an app. In about a month,
I developed Ragdoll
Run, now available on the App Store.
I built it using Apple's SpriteKit framework in addition to StoreKit, CloudKit, and
Google AdMob. It fully supports iPhone, iPad, and iMessage. 50% of revenue from
in-app purchases and ads is donated to non-profits.
taskr
May 2018 - August 2018
I was a Software Engineering Intern on
Intune's
mobile app management (MAM) team for Android. They develop an SDK that allows IT
pros to make tightly managed apps. I made an example app demonstrating how to use
this SDK called Taskr. Taskr is open source and available on
GitHub.
I finished this project in half of my internship, so I spent the rest of the
time fixing bugs on sprints with my team. I specifically focused on bugs that
had arisen from multi-process Android apps.
equisat
September 2016 - May 2020
Brown Space Engineering is are dedicated to making space more accessible for
people of all backgrounds. Following our schematics, anyone can make a satellite
for only $3,776. Successfully deployed on July 13th, 2018, EQUiSat is the first
satellite to test LiFePO
batteries in space and its four LEDs are visible by the naked eye. I worked
on organizing satellite operations using FreeRTOS
and optimizing data transmission, especially error packaging.
I became project manager and co-president in 2018, so in addition to coordinating satellite
operations and managing our over 75 members, I led the design of our
next CubeSat, PVDX. I was responsible for communication with NASA, the University,
and any other external entity.
For more information, you can visit the team website here.
View our team GitHub here.
wikispeedia
March - May 2017
The Wikipedia game is an old
standby for bored teens, but it's rarely done right. For my final project for
CS 32 at Brown, my group and I decided to perfect this age-old game.
I worked on the user experience, including lobby experience,
site-wide design, and graphic design. I also set up hosting so anyone can play online.
Want to play the game yourself? You can play
here! Since it is hosted on Heroku's
free tier, please give the app a few seconds to start up.
You can view the code on our
project GitHub repo.
this-site
Work in progress
Since mid 2016, I've been continuously redesigning
jleiken.com, this site. In this most recent iteration,
I decided to mimic the experience of using a terminal. Nearly every semester
in college I found myself writing a REPL, so I have very strong ideas about what
I like and what I don't. Drawing on that experience, combined
with my modern Javascript experience at Amazon, I decided to write this website in
pure ES, no jQuery involved. The static version, for mobile and visitors unfamiliar
with terminals, serves as a template for the REPL version. This means that the
Javascript can pull from the HTML - there are very few strings that contain HTML code.
The site is hosted on Github Pages and uses Jekyll for Sass. If you're interested
in how I wrote this site, you can view the source code on
Github.
The REPL is defined in js/repl.js
and run from js/index.js
.
$ classes
law
Global Data Law | Fall 2023 |
Space and Planetary Law and Governance | Fall 2023 |
Constitutional Law | Fall 2023 |
Survey of IP | Spring 2023 |
Criminal Law | Fall 2022 |
undergraduate computer science and engineering classes
CSCI 1670 | Operating Systems |
CSCI 1470 | Deep Learning |
CSCI 1680 | Computer Networks |
CSCI 1730 | Design and Implementation of Programming Languages |
CSCI 1660 | Intro to Computer Systems Security |
CSCI 1951-S | Virtual Reality Software Review |
CLPS 1250 | Human Factors Design |
ENGN 1760 | Design of Space Systems |
CSCI 1650 | Software Security and Exploitation |
CSCI 1300 | User Interfaces and User Experience |