Newman, Pauline, 1887-1986

Pauline Newman (born June 20, 1927) is a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Born in New York City, New York to Maxwell H. and Rosella G. Newman, Newman received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College in 1947, a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1948, a Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry from Yale University in 1952 and a Bachelor of Laws from New York University School of Law in 1958. She worked as a research scientist for American Cyanamid from 1951 to 1954. From 1954 to 1984, Newman worked for FMC Corp., for fifteen years (1954–1969) as a patent attorney and in-house counsel, and for another fifteen years (1969–1984) as director of the Patent, Trademark and Licensing Department.

From 1961 to 1962 Newman also worked for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a science policy specialist in the Department of Natural Resources. She served on the State Department Advisory Committee on International Intellectual Property from 1974 to 1984 and on the advisory committee to the Domestic Policy Review of Industrial Innovation from 1978 to 1979. From 1982 to 1984, she was Special Adviser to the United States Delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Over her career, Newman has received honors including the Wilbur Cross Medal of Yale University Graduate School, and the Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Cooperation from the Pacific Industrial Property Association.

Newman was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by President Ronald Reagan on January 30, 1984, to a seat vacated by the decision of Judge Philip Nichols Jr. to take senior status. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 27, 1984, and received her commission the following day. Newman thus became the first judge appointed directly to the Federal Circuit, all of her predecessors having come to the court through the merger of the Court of Customs and Patent Appeals and the appellate division of the United States Court of Federal Claims. She has also been an adjunct professor at the George Mason University School of Law.

Pauline Newman, labor organizer, Director of Health Education at the Union Health Center of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU), and member of the National and New York Women's Trade Union League (N/NYWTUL), was born in Popelan, Kuvna, Lithuania, in about 1890, the youngest of Meyer and Theresa Newman's two sons and four daughters. Meyer Newman sold fruit and taught Talmud to the well-to-do sons of the village. Following his death, Theresa Newman and her three youngest daughters, including PN, left Lithuania and immigrated to the United States to join two of the older Newman children. They arrived at Ellis Island in May 1901 and went to live with members of the family on the Lower East Side of New York City.

PN received her earliest education as a member of her father's Talmud class. In New York she was unable to attend public school because of the family's poverty, but she educated herself through extensive reading on her own and as a member of the Socialist Literary Society.

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