ABA panel to include Marchant

Professor Gary Marchant, executive director of the Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, will participate in a panel during a CLE session at the ABA's 2009 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Marchant, ASU's Lincoln Professor of Emerging Technologies, Law & Ethics, will discuss the "Impact of DNA on Civil Litigation" during a session on Sunday, Aug. 2, hosted by the ABA's Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.

Genetic evidence, in the form of forensic DNA, has radically transformed criminal litigation over the past decade, and now genetic evidence is beginning to have a role in a growing number of civil cases, Marchant noted. The session will explore how genetic data is already being used in toxic tort and product liability lawsuits by both defendants and plaintiffs, and how the use of this type of evidence is likely to increase rapidly in upcoming years.

Marchant's research interests include the use of genetic information in environmental regulation, risk and the precautionary principle, legal aspects of personalized medicine, and regulation of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, neuroscience and biotechnology. He teaches courses in Environmental Law, Law, Science & Technology, Genetics and the Law, Biotechnology: Science, Law and Policy, and Nanotechnology Law & Policy. He also is a professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences.

Janie Magruder, Jane.Magruder@asu.edu
(480) 727-9052
Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law