Law Student Member
Opportunities to Become Involved in
Cutting-Edge Section Projects

The ABA Section of Science & Technology Law provides leadership on emerging issues at the intersection of law, science, and technology, and works to promote sound policy and public understanding on such issues.  Several committees within the Section (SciTech) would like law students to assist with some of their exciting projects.  If you are interested in working on any of the projects described below, please contact the designated person and the Section Membership and Committees Manager, Julia Gillespie, at gillespj@staff.abanet.org.

The ABA Section of Science & Technology Law provides leadership on emerging issues at the intersection of law, science, and technology, and works to promote sound policy and public understanding on such issues. Several committees within the Section (SciTech) would like law students to assist with some of their exciting projects. If you are interested in working on any of the projects described below, please contact the designated person and the Section Membership and Committees Manager, Julia Gillespie, at gillespj@staff.abanet.org.

 

Artificial Intelligence & Robotics Committee

The Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee would welcome the involvement of law students! As a new Committee we offer the opportunity for students to get in on the ground floor, to get to know practitioners and companies in this area and to get known by them. We will acknowledge student workers on our website and in appropriate publications. We also are willing to do the work and paperwork necessary to sponsor students for independent study credit. Specifically, we are looking for students to:

1) Be our first webmaster! The ABA provides the infrastructure for a website, listserv, and webinars. We are looking for one or more students who can help us set up our site and create the platform for online publishing contributions.

2) Research and write summaries of cases, laws, regs, about AI and/or Robotics.

3) Identify uses of AI & Robotics in the execution or interpretation of law or law enforcement. This topic will cover both research and commercial applications.

4) Identify other organizations with whom the AI/R committee should partner for programs and relevant websites that should be included in a resources page."  Contact Committee Co-Chairs Matthew Henshon: mhenshon@hpvpc.com or K. Waterman: kkw@watermanlaw.com.

 

Biotechnology Law Committee

The Biotechnology Law Committee is looking for volunteers to author articles for upcoming issues of the Biotech Briefing Newsletter. Students have written for the newsletter in the past. If you are interested, please contact Erika Lietzan at elietzan@cov.com.

 

Electronic Commerce Payment Committee

Research opportunity focused on the implications of the use of virtual money in gaming circles; especially from a money laundering/security risk perspective. The goal is to write an article for The SciTech Lawyer based on this research, which should also include testing games and on-line 'chat' to investigate what goes on, etc. Interested students would choose what aspect appeals to them from a payments/security/regulation perspective.

As a recent Symantec data security report indicated: "these markets (also referred to as secondary economies) are currently unregulated and are still too small to attract serious attention from law enforcement and securities regulators.” Symantec believes that these characteristics could allow criminals to use them for illicit activities. For example, because of the anonymity offered by PVWs, in which all identities are virtual, criminals may be able to launder money through the use of RMTs. China recently made moves to ban virtual money out of fear of the emergence of an out- of- control unregulated secondary economy.

Symantec also believes that attackers will use PVWs and MMOGs to trick victims into installing malicious software under the pretense that the software improves functionality in the virtual world. For example,
virtual worlds have embraced the concept of scripted bots that serve, entertain, and protect avatars within the virtual environment. This could provide attackers with an opportunity to compromise the environment itself.

Although most MMOGs are designed to be played by players, automated tools can be used to enhance play and avoid some tedious, repetitive activities. The downloading and use of these tools presents an
opportunity to attackers to incorporate malicious programs such as keystroke loggers and password and information stealers, which the user may unknowingly install on their computer.

 

E-Payments Committee

The E-Payments Committee needs law students to assist in looking at the current legal and business/banking infrastructure in the U.S. as it relates to mobile payments by looking at the issues from both the perspective of the end user and the service providers. Is it adequate? What are the gaps, if any? Are new laws/regulations needed? A followup project will look at mobile payments in developing countries, such as Wizzit in SA: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2878727
and M-Pesa in Kenya and Celpay in Zambia/Congo.

Another project needs volunteers to help research the U.S. regulatory framework as it relates/or doesn't, to payment processors -- after the CardSystems data breach debacle, that issue is especially pertinent. If you are interested, please contact Mary Kirwan at mary@headfry.com.

National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law -- On-Line Database Project
The National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida, sponsored by the National Institute of Justice, is looking for students to perform research to contribute to its on-line database program. NCSTL's database pulls together research resources involving the nexus of science, technology and the law, and is freely available to the public at www.ncstl.org. NCSTL has created a program in which students can work with their own faculty to earn academic credit at their own school while performing research that results in NCSTL database entries. Interested students should contact NCSTL's Director of Research, Diana Botluk, dbotluk@law.stetson.edu, for more information. 

Please contact Mary Kirwan at: brehon@rogers.com.

 

E-Privacy Committee

Ample opportunities exist for law students to assist in the E-Privacy Law Committee's effort to compile a database of privacy laws.  Please contact Committee Co-Chairs Bill Baker at wbaker@wileyrein.com or Francoise Gilbert at fgilbert@itlawgroup.com.

 

Public Health, Environmental Law and Preparedness

The Public Health, Environmental Law and Preparedness Committee seeks two volunteers for a new project.

Our committee is launching a project to create a listing and assessment of all Law School journals which have explicit interest in public health, environmental law, global warming, emergency preparedness and cross cutting issues of technology and privacy in these areas.

The committee has a source list prepared already of the major journals. The students will be asked to research, create a standing data base and provide comments concerning those journals which tend to publish articles in the areas of interest to the committee. We will ask for an assessment of emerging "hot" topics in the areas of committee interests and a listing of the key articles and authors. The goal is to complete a draft by February if feasible, with a final report by the end of April. The work will be done as a team with the students having input into how they want to proceed with the project. They will work with the Committee Co-Chair Christine Grant. This project will be presented to the full Leadership Council when completed.

Contact Chris Grant at christine.grant@gmail.com or Melissa Ince at melissa.ince@bryancave.com, for more information.