Brian Zuercher

Brian Zuercher serves as a Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke University School of Law, teaching specialized courses including Ethics and the Law of Lawyering, International Legal Practice, and Compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Concurrently, he holds a fractional outside general counsel role for Reliable Robotics, a developer of autonomous aircraft technology.

Professional background includes:

• Vice President and General Counsel of Ethics and Compliance at SAS Institute Inc., where he built global ethics programs for the world's largest privately held software company (honored as Fortune #1 Best Place to Work during his tenure)
• General counsel roles at Blue Line Aviation (flight training) and Torc Robotics (autonomous navigation)
• Of counsel at Bagchi Law advising on technology compliance, and board advisor for Gateway Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences

Educational background:

• Juris Doctor (JD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Relations and French, University of Minnesota

His academic focus centers on legal ethics in emerging technology sectors, particularly how compliance frameworks apply to autonomous systems and AI. Drawing from firsthand experience licensing SAS's AI/ML technologies globally and developing aviation compliance programs, his teaching emphasizes practical implementation of ethics standards in high-stakes technical environments. Current work bridges autonomous aircraft regulation with cross-border compliance challenges.