The Law of Star Wars at Escape Velocity

Tomorrow, I get to present on the Law of Star Wars at Escape Velocity, a high-tech and science fiction convention in Washington, D.C. My co-presenters are Prof. Mark Lemley, attorney Nari Ely, and Charles Hildebrandt (who works for the Museum of Science Fiction – my new dream job!). I obviously love talking about the legal issues in the Star Wars universe, but I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s panel because of how much fun these geeks had last year.

At Escape Velocity 2017, my three co-presenters (and another attorney) covered the legal issues in Star Trek. The panel ended with Klingons arrested the lawyers! Of course, the Klingons had to read them their rights, so attendees were treated to the Miranda Rights as given in the Klingon language. Only problem – Klingons don’t have lawyers so there was no Klingon word for lawyer. Fortunately, Marc Okrand, who invented the Klingon language, was also a guest at Escape Velocity. So he created a Klingon word for lawyer: chut qeSwI’ (literal translation: “law adviser”)!

We probably won’t be creating any new words this year but I can assure you that we will still have a great time. So come check us out at Escape Velocity tomorrow at two. See you soon!