Aaron Rieke is a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology. Currently, he is a Senior Partner at Clarion AI Partners, where he advises companies on civil rights and consumer protection law as applied to AI. Previously, he served as Chief of Staff and Attorney Advisor to FTC Commissioner Alvaro M. Bedoya.
Aaron is a lawyer and software engineer with nearly two decades of experience in technology policy, research, and enforcement. He has advised the White House, Congress, federal regulators, and leading technology companies on discrimination in hiring, housing, credit, and advertising. At the FTC, he led consumer protection and privacy enforcement involving emerging technologies. As Managing Director of Upturn, a public-interest research and advocacy organization, he led peer-reviewed research and algorithmic audits that informed federal enforcement actions — including the DOJ’s landmark Fair Housing Act settlement with Meta — and prompted changes in industry practice.
His research has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and The Economist.
Aaron earned his J.D. from Berkeley Law, where he was a Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology and an editor of the California Law Review and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He began his legal career as a Ron Plesser Fellow at CDT.