In an initiative demonstrating Boston College Law School’s commitment to leading legal education’s response to technological advances, Dean Odette Lienau announced that a new graduate degree program will launch in the fall of 2025. The Master of Legal Studies in Cybersecurity, Risk, and Governance is the reshaping of a program that has been operating at BC’s Woods School of Advancing Studies since 2015, under the direction of Kevin R. Powers.
“This change results from a recent University review process, which considered the current program’s strong curriculum, connection to law and regulation, and many prospective synergies with existing juris doctor and master of laws programs at BC Law,” said Dean Lienau. “Although the [Woods] Master of Science in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance degree program currently provides students with an excellent experience and the education, training, and skills needed to excel in the cybersecurity field, the program will be enhanced by a redevelopment and relaunch as a new MLS program housed, overseen, and managed by the Law School.”
The growing overlap between cybersecurity and law has generated high demand for professionals with a deep legal and regulatory understanding of cybersecurity and adjacent fields.
In addition to his role as founder and director of the Woods cybersecurity program, Powers has taught at Boston College Law School. He will stay on as director and lecturer of the new MLS program. His background includes twenty-five years of combined cybersecurity, data privacy, business, law enforcement, military, and national security experience.
The growing overlap between cybersecurity and law has generated high demand for professionals with a legal and regulatory understanding of cybersecurity and adjacent fields such as data privacy and artificial intelligence. Dean Lienau said the MLS in Cybersecurity, Risk, and Governance received formal acquiescence from the American Bar Association last June.
Read more about the MLS program in BC News.
Photograph by Lee Pelligrini