Section committees lead the way when it comes to emerging legal issues in science and technology, well before they are mainstream. This allows you to get the jump on opposing counsel and distinguish yourself from other law practices. Join one of the Section’s new cutting-edge committees today!

Animal Research

This Committee works to educate attorneys and others regarding the use of and legal protections for animals in biomedical research and the benefits for humans and animals that biomedical research affords.  The Committee provides a source of expertise in this area. 

The Committee seeks volunteers to write articles on subjects of interest to the committee, beginning with the Animal Welfare Act.

The Committee Chair, Jeannie Perron, is a veterinarian, who has seen her patients benefit from the advances made possible only through biomedical research.  In her law practice today, she advises a number of research companies that are making important contributions to both human and animal health on how to comply with the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act so that their research animals receive all of the protections the law provides. 

Click here to join the committee. E-mail Committee Chair Jeannie Perron at JPERRON@COV.COM for more information.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee

The Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee will address all aspects of law and devices that replicate or appear to replicate human mental or physical activity: learning, reasoning, communicating, manipulating objects, etc.

Activity will be divided into two broad topic categories. The first: use in legal activities will address advances such as automated contract drafting and interpretation, compliance monitoring, and even law enforcement. The second will track changes in statute, regulation, and case law about, or which specifically affect parties engaged in, artificial intelligence and robotics.

As technology advances, the committee will address the challenges posed by ever smarter and more-dexterous machines that can out-perform humans. This committee will provide invaluable assistance to those advising technology companies, incorporating new technologies into their practice, lawyers in technology roles, technologists building legal tools, cross-disciplinary professors, and those who just want to be ahead of the curve. The Committee will soon offer a listserv, on-line publications, and working groups. Webinars and teleconferences will follow.

Click here to join the committee. E-mail the Committee Co-Chairs Matthew Henshon at mhenshon@hpvpc.com and K Krasnow Waterman at kkw@MIT.EDU for more information or to volunteer.

Blogs and User Generated Content on the Internet

This exciting, new Committee has formulated several initiatives, specifically:

• Developing a well-annotated flow chart of the take-down and put-back provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  This initiative is underway and has involved, and hopes to further involve, persons in their 20’s and 30’s who are law school students and/or recent graduates so as to make this project meaningful to, and garner the support of, these age groups.
• The creating, drafting, and publishing of blogging guidelines for businesses and their employees.  That initiative has received ample press coverage by BNA.
• A series of ABA-sponsored podcasts that will also reach out to and embrace the collateral areas of privacy and records retention for websites that host blogs and/or user generated content.
• Organizing a national speakers’ bureau of qualified presenters on the subject matters embraced by the Committee.
• Reach consensus on a meaningful and attractive theme for a multi-Section co-sponsored CLE program at the 2008 ABA Annual Meeting in New York, NY.

In undertaking these initiatives, the Committee has the capability of being in the very forefront of addressing the timeliest issues that are within its scope and focus.

In pursuing its initiatives, the Committee Co-Chairs will also involve the interests and members of the Cyberspace Law Committee of the Section of Business Law through its Committee on the Acquisition of Information Technology, the Intellectual Property Committee of the Section of Business Law, and Committee 355, Special Committee on Copyrights and the Internet, of the Section of Intellectual Property Law.

The Committee Co-Chairs very much look forward to your comments and to the prospect of working together with you.  Click here to join the committee. Please contact the Committee Co-Chairs Steve Hollman at shollman@businessandtechnologylawgroup.com and Dino Tsibouris at Dino@tsibouris.com to become involved in this exciting endeavor.

Museum Law

The Museum Law Committee focuses on emerging science and technology law issues relating to museums and the art world.  The committee welcomes all Section members with an interest in this topic, and particularly invites the participation of law student and young lawyer Section members who would like to be involved in projects, research and writing that bring together the worlds of museums, art, technology and the law.  Early suggestions for projects for the committee include:  the use of new technologies to investigate and analyze artworks and artifacts; who "owns" digital 3-D scans and other information about artifacts to be repatriated; how online auctions and other developments affect the art market; and issues in the collection and storage of genetic and other databases of zoo animals and plants.

A program on the use of new technologies (& mathematics) to investigate and analyze artworks and artifacts, organized by committee member Jessica Darraby and featuring top conservators and researchers from leading institutions, has been scheduled to be presented to the global science community at the American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting in Boston, 14-18 February 2008.

The Committee anticipates actively working on projects of interest to its members to produce reports, develop programs, and share its findings in articles in The SciTech Lawyer and elsewhere.  Click here to join the committee. Please contact Committee Chair Richard L. Field field@pipeline.com for more information about the Museum Law Committee.

 

Rights & Responsibilities of Scientists

This Committee serves as a primary advocacy resource for those interested in the legal representation, professional autonomy, and regulatory obligations of researchers, teachers, and practitioners in all areas of scientific endeavor.

CORRS will be sponsoring a teleconference on Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) on January 29th, and submitting an article on the same topic to The SciTech Lawyer later this month.  The Committee is currently reaching out to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) via the National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists (NCLS), a joint committee of SciTech and AAAS, in order to increase our multidisciplinary membership.  CORRS is personally meaningful to Committee Chair, Eric Drogin, because, as a lawyer and forensic psychologist, he maintains a blended legal and scientific practice, while over the years he has discovered that many SciTech members have similarly diverse academic and professional backgrounds. 
 
Click here to join the committee. Contact Committee Chair Eric Drogin for more information at eyd@drogin.net.

See the entire list of Section committees at: http://www.abanet.org/scitech/committees/home.shtml.