Abstract: 

Magician or Maven: Scientists at the Bar
Science is a branch of systematized knowledge derived from observation and study based on or using the principles and methods of science. A scientist is a specialist in the field of science who continually collects new data and proposes new theories. But, is a scientist a steward of the future? Is directing the future the responsibility of the scientist? More importantly, how does the legal profession distinguish “the wheat of scientific fact and the chaff of scientific noise?”*        

Today, Rule 702 to the Federal Rules of Evidence is the appropriate standard to assess the reliability and admissibility of scientific expert testimony and evidence. To qualify a scientific knowledge, an inference or assertion must be derived by the scientific method. Proposed testimony must be supported by appropriate validation.

In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc.** , the Supreme Court held that when expert evidence based upon “scientific knowledge” is offered at trial, the judge should act as a gatekeeper by determining that any and all scientific testimony or evidence admitted is not only relevant, but reliable. Scientific testimony must be based on “scientific method or procedure” and comprise more than “subjective belief or unsupported speculation.”

The law needs science to help it know about the facts of the world in which legal policy must operate. , the law’s version of science often has very different starting assumptions than science’s version of science.***   Science and the law differ in both the language they use and the objectives they seek to accomplish.****   And, when scientific expertise is produced in response to litigation, science’s normal processes of validation can be bypassed or distorted.*****

ABOUT SONIA MILLER:
A challenging agent of change recognized for creatively stretching the boundaries of traditional legal, business, and academic paradigms, Ms. Miller is a practicing attorney and principal of S.E. MILLER LAW FIRM, a boutique law firm that advises international clients, industry, and government on the legal, ethical, policy, regulatory, and legislative cross-disciplinary implications of emerging and converging technologies in today's global businesses, tomorrow's economies, and future "flat-world" research and development initiatives. She is a worldwide solicited speaker, author, consultant, and media commentator.
 
A recipient of multi-disciplinary degrees a J.D., an M.B.A. in International Business, a M.S.Ed. with specialization in organizational development, and a B.Ed., Ms. Miller is a forward thinker who anticipates future trends at the frontiers of science and technology and prepares her clients and constituents with foresight. She is the founder and director of Miller International Seminars & Conferences (MISC), the training and development arm of her firm, and SciTechEngine, a legal and business consulting division.
 
As a legal and business strategist, Ms. Miller is founder and global president of the Converging Technologies Bar Association (CTBA), the first and only professional association in the world dedicated to addressing the multi-faceted impact of converging technologies. In that capacity, she was invited and appointed by the chairman of the National Research Council of The National Academies to serve as a member of the National Materials Advisory Board's Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative, Assess the Responsible Development of Nanotechnology, and Determine the Technical Feasibility of Molecular Self-Assembly in accord with the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act of 2003.
 
Ms. Miller is a columnist for the New York Law Journal, authoring articles on converging technologies for its Technology Today section. Additionally, she is an adjunct professor in the Executive M.B.A. Program at Polytechnic University - Institute for Technology & Enterprise, in New York. There she created and is teaching "Managing Converging Technologies: Integrating Bits, Atoms, Neurons, and Genes" - the first educational course in the world on the convergence of NBIC, and established the Converging Technologies Luncheon Series.
 
At ASTM International, Ms. Miller is a member of the Executive Committee and chair of its Subcommittee on International Law and Intellectual Property for Committee E56 on Nanotechnology. Ms. Miller is a Senior Fellow for the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College in Albany, New York. Plus, she serves on the Advisory Panel for the Center on Nanotechnology and Society - Chicago-Kent College of Law, in Chicago, Illinois. She was recently invited to serve as a member of the editorial board of the new Journal on the Ethics of Nanotechnology to be published by Springer in 2007. She is a contributor to the Intellectual Property Law Dictionary, published by Law Journal Press, and serves on its Editorial Board. In addition, Ms. Miller serves on the Advisory Board of the Nanotechnology Law & Business Journal.
 
A well-respected voice in science and technology circles, Ms. Miller is a member of the Materials Research Society, the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the New York Academy of Sciences. She currently serves on the Consumer Affairs Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar Association serving on the International Law Section, the New York State Bar Association and its International Law and Practice Section, and the American Bar Association and its Section on Science and Technology.
 
She is founder and past chair of the Committee on Science, Emerging and Converging Technologies at the Empire State Chapter of the Federal Bar Association where she served on the Board of Directors and as a National Council Delegate. She is also the founder and past chair of the Cyberspace Law Committee at New York County Lawyers‚ Association where she served on the Board of Directors, chaired the Electronics Task Force, was a member of the Multi-Jurisdiction Task Force, and was appointed as a Delegate to the New York State Bar Association. Additionally, Ms. Miller was founder and past chair of the Privacy Rights Committee of the New York Software Industry Association.
 
Ms. Miller is admitted to practice in New York and the District of Columbia, before the Supreme Court of the United States, and the United States District Courts of the Southern and Eastern Districts. In 2005, she was nominated to the World Technology Network and today is listed in the Bioethics and Society Research Register. New York Law School, Ms. Miller's alma mater, honored her for her entrepreneurship and innovation within the law in their 2005 Annual Spotlight on Women luncheon.