Rita S. Heimes

Senior Affiliate Fellow
Director, Information Privacy Summer Institute

Rita Heimes is senior counsel in the Washington D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld where she assists global clients with cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection regulatory matters. Prior to joining Akin in 2025, Rita was general counsel and chief privacy officer at the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).

At  Maine Law, she works with Prof. Scott Bloomberg to organize the annual Privacy in Practice conference and assist with programming the annual Information Privacy Summer Institute, which is a series of summer courses on critical and current information privacy issues. Rita served various full-time roles at Maine Law between 2001 to 2014, including clinical professor of law, director of the Center for Law + Innovation, and associate dean for academic affairs.

She received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Iowa and her J.D. from Drake University School of Law. She then clerked for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle before eventually moving to Maine and helping to raise several children with her husband, Gene.

Selected Publications

Lawyers and Innovation, in LATEEF MTIMA, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE (2015). [SSRN] [Edward Elgar]

Trademarks, Identity, and Justice, 11 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 133 (2011). [SSRN]

Technology Use Agreements, State Laws and the Pre-Emption Doctrine, in RESEARCH HANDBOOK ON BIOTECHNOLOGY AND GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT (Peter K. Yu ed., Edward Elgar Publ’g 2011).

Ocean Management & Planning in the United States: From Competition to Cooperation, ANNUAIRE DE DROIT MARITIME ET OCEANIQUE (Universite de Nantes 2011). [SSRN]

Post-Sale Restrictions on Patented Seeds: Which Law Governs?, 10 WAKE FOREST INTELL. PROP. L.J. 98 (2010). [SSRN]

Ocean Planning and the Gulf of Maine: Exploring Bi-National Policy Options, 15 OCEAN & COASTAL L.J. 293 (2010) (co-authored with Lucia Fanning). [SSRN] [PDF]

Creating a Mouse Academic Research Commons, 27 NATURE BIOTECH. 890 (2009) (co-authored with David Einhorn). [Nature.com]

Managing a Fishery Through Contract: Legal Issues Raised by Sector Operating Agreements in the New England Multispecies Fishery, 14 OCEAN & COASTAL L.J. 17 (2008). [SSRN] [PDF]

Patent Trolls Prey on SMEs, in PATENT TROLLS: LEGAL IMPLICATIONS 122 (C Sri Krishna ed., Amicus Books, Icfai U. Press 2008).

Climate Change in the Northwest Atlantic, Ctr. for L. & Innovation, U. of Me. Sch. of L. (2007) (editor).

Legal Guide for Maine Harbormasters, Marine L. Inst., U. of Me. Sch. of L. (2006) (editor).

From Laboratory to Marketplace: The Capacity of Maine’s Research Institutions for Innovation and Technology Transfer, U. of Me. Sch. of L. (2004).

Panel Discussion, Symposium, Internet Privacy Law, Policy and Practice: State, Federal and International Perspectives, 54 ME L. REV. 95 (2002).

Reaching into Cyberspace with Maine’s Long-Arm Statute, 14 ME. B.J. 306 (1999).

Liability for Passive Disposal of Hazardous Waste under CERCLA, 42 DRAKE L. REV. 255 (1993). [HeinOnline]

Rita Heimes
207.780.4355
rheimes@maine.edu

Education

B.A., University of Iowa
J.D., Drake University Law School

Current Courses

  • Information Privacy Summer Institute: Privacy in Practice Conference

Research Interests

  • Economic Development
  • Information Privacy & Cybersecurity Law
  • Innovation Development
  • Intellectual Property
  • Social Justice

In the Media