Jon Hart is a veteran media and technology lawyer.  He is a consultant to the Journalism Program at the Knight Foundation and serves on the boards of Baltimore Public Radio (which operates WYPR, the NPR affiliate in Baltimore, and WTMD, a music discovery station), The American Prospect and CapitalBop.   

From 2014 through 2020, Jon served as Chief Legal Officer, General Counsel, Secretary, and Chief Ethics Officer of NPR.  Prior to joining NPR, Jon spent more than 27 years in private practice at Dow Lohnes PLLC (where he founded and co-chaired the firm’s Media & Information Technologies practice) and Cooley LLP (where he was a partner in the Technology Transactions Group).  His practice focused on First Amendment and media law; complex technology and multiparty transactions; data collection and privacy law; licensing and intellectual property law; media litigation; and the law of nonprofit institutions.  

Jon was a founder of the Online News Association and served as its general counsel for 15 years before joining NPR.  He was on the faculty of the Stanford Professional Publishing Courses from 1994 to 2008 and on the faculty of the successor Yale Publishing Course from 2009 through 2019.  Jon is author of Internet Law:  A Field Guide (6th Edition, BNA Books 2008) and of @Law, an occasional column on technology and the law that appeared on WSJ.com from 2000 to 2004. Before entering private practice, Jon clerked for U.S. Circuit Judge Jerome Farris and U.S. District Judge Almeric L. Christian.  He is a graduate of Middlebury College (English and music) and Stanford Law School.