David Sella-Villa joined the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law faculty as an Assistant Professor in July 2024. His primary research and teaching interests focus on law and technology, privacy, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence.

Prior to his full-time faculty appointment, Professor Sella-Villa served as an adjunct faculty member at the Joseph F. Rice School of Law at the University of South Carolina and William & Mary Law School. He also brings extensive practical experience to his academic role. He served as South Carolina's Chief Privacy Officer, leading the Enterprise Privacy Office and educating state agencies on privacy best practices. Before that, he was Assistant General Counsel for the South Carolina Department of Administration, where he advised the state’s IT division. In the private sector, Professor Sella-Villa worked as General Counsel for Tempus Applied Solutions and Global Flight Relief, managing complex transactions and regulatory compliance in the aviation industry. He has also maintained a solo law practice focused on serving pro bono clients.

Professor Sella-Villa's scholarship appears in University of Richmond Law Review, University of Missouri Kansas City Law Review, the International Journal of Remote Sensing, and The Business Lawyer. He is an active member of the Sedona Conference Working Group on Data Security and Privacy Liability. His work has also been selected for discussion at the Privacy Law Scholars Conference – Europe (PLSC-E) and the Annual Symposium on Applications of Contextual Integrity (PrivaCI).

He holds a J.D. from William & Mary Law School. He also earned an M.Sc. in European Political Economy from the London School of Economics and dual bachelor's degrees from West Virginia University. Professor Sella-Villa holds the highest designation from the International Association of Privacy Professionals – Fellow of Information Privacy (FIP). He is admitted to practice law in South Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.