David Mirchin is a partner at Meitar, an international law firm in Israel with over 550 legal professionals, where he heads the 45-lawyer Commercial Technology Department. He is a leading expert on software, licensing, and intellectual property transactions, as well as on privacy, AI, copyright, and open-source issues.
When Mirchin started at Meitar in 2002, he was Lawyer No. 32, and there were just three lawyers in his department.
The Magazine recently sat down with him at a café in Ra’anana.
What inspired you to think about aliyah? To make aliyah?
My parents grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, and I grew up across the Passaic River in Fairlawn. My grandmother was so involved in Hadassah that letters addressed to “Hadassah, Paterson, New Jersey” were delivered to her mailbox; and my grandfather collected money for Israel Bonds. For my bar mitzvah, my parents gave me a choice – a party or a family trip to Israel. I chose the trip to Israel, and that was my only plane flight before I was 21. Between college and law school, I came here for a few months and fell in love with the country.
My wife and I met in Jerusalem in the 1980s. She was on her way back to Cambridge to attend Harvard Business School, and I had just accepted a law job in Israel. To be together, I knew I had to return to Cambridge. So, three weeks after we started dating, we decided to get married. For the next 14 years, we lived in Cambridge, raised three children, and pursued our professional careers.
We thought we’d come back to Israel much sooner, but our youngest child, Tali, has low cognitive functioning and is moderately deaf. We all signed with her in English. The question was: Would Tali be able to learn Hebrew and learn Hebrew sign language?
In 2001, we concluded that aliyah was “now or never.” My wife and I quit our jobs and decided to come for a year to see how it goes. We came; we liked it and felt that we could make a difference.
After the first few months, Tali was able to learn Hebrew and sign in Hebrew. Soon, the five of us were all (poorly) signing in Hebrew. We are grateful for the high-quality special education that Tali received at the Niv School in Tel Aviv and the Agam School in Ra’anana. She currently lives in an Akim group home in Ra’anana. Maayan and Josh, our older kids, quickly made good friends at school and at activities like basketball and horseback riding, and we felt that we were all integrating well in our new home.
What advice would you give a young lawyer today in New Jersey – to make aliyah immediately after passing the bar in the US or to first gain some legal experience in the US?
I moved here with some law experience and some savings, and both helped ease our aliyah. On the other hand, there are now phenomenal opportunities here for newly minted lawyers with law degrees from topnotch English-language universities. The reality is when families wait too long to make aliyah, they usually just do not come.
There are over 100 million users of ChatGPT (including me). Do you recommend any precautions when using this virtual assistant?
Do not input any passwords, financial details, or personal, confidential, or sensitive information. Anything that you input can be output to others. (It has happened!) The data that you share with ChatGPT is not private. However, there are paid versions of ChatGPT that provide better security.
What are some legal issues with Firefly, an AI [artificial intelligence] model that can provide pictures?
There are pending court cases considering whether a large language model [LLM] like Firefly is infringing copyright by using the photographs of others without paying or whether it is fair use because it is transformative. There may be a decision before the year is out.
You have taught Internet law at Tel Aviv Law School, Reichman University, and Boston College Law School. What is a current issue?
Whether scraping content from websites is legal. I personally can see both sides of the issue. We will often advise clients on how to assess the actual risk that scraping poses and how to mitigate that risk.
Looking back to 1979, when you received your BA at Yale University, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, it’s interesting that your major was in Chinese history. Why Chinese history?
I chose my courses at Yale based on the teacher; an interesting professor can make any subject interesting. I heard that Professor Jonathan Spence was great. I took his course, was totally wowed by him, and changed my major from economics to Chinese history. I thought about getting a PhD in Chinese studies. But there were no jobs in this in the 1970s, so I decided to go for something more employable and chose law school.
How has Jewish life at Harvard changed since you received your law degree (JD) in 1983?
In 1983, it was safe to be a Jew and openly support Israel. Today, that’s no longer the case. Jewish students are being bullied, and the administration’s response has been timid and dithering. I was the head of the Jewish Law Students’ Association, and we proudly set up a sukkah in the middle of the campus. Among 540 students, four of us wore kippot, and none of us felt any fear. Today, students are covering up their kippot with baseball caps.
Do you make time for physical activity?
I like cycling and hiking. I just returned from a five-day hike in Ireland, and biking is part of my lifestyle. I often bike to work in Ramat Gan, and I highly recommend the Alyn Hospital charity bike ride, now called Wheels of Love, on behalf of the children and adolescents who are coping with physical disabilities. The ride is a wonderful opportunity to both contribute and to see amazing parts of Israel.
With your busy schedule, what else do you manage to fit in?
I regularly visit my beloved wife, Leslie, who is living in an assisted living facility for advanced Alzheimer’s patients. My shul [synagogue], Kinor David, is very important to me, and I have served as president. Also, our unambitious Book Group, which gets together every other month. We meet in person, discuss books; actually, we mostly drink beer. One of my favorite books was Educated by Tara Westover. But the most important and enjoyable activity is the time I spend with our four grandchildren.
More about David Mirchin
Before making aliyah, Mirchin was vice president and general counsel of SilverPlatter Information, based in London and Boston. He also worked as a corporate attorney in the Boston offices of McDermott Will & Emery, and Mintz Levin, and as a foreign corporate lawyer at Konaka Toyama in Tokyo.
He has authored three books on copyright law and licensing issues, and is sure his mother is the only one who has ever read them! ■
David Mirchin From Cambridge, Mass., to Ra’anana, 2001