Dr. Ronald B. Standler
attorney in Massachusetts
and consultant

I do two different kinds of work in law:
  1. I do consulting to attorneys, principally on scientific evidence in torts involving technology, for example:
    1. electrical surges or "power quality". I have experience with both the design and application of surge-protective devices: surge arresters and surge suppressors, which are also known in the USA as "transient voltage surge suppressors" (TVSS).
    2. law of meteorology (e.g., lightning, cloud seeding, liability for negligent weather forecasts)
    3. computer hardware and software, including misuse of computers
    4. products liability
    For more detail, see my consulting services to litigators and my legal research services.

  2. Since 1998, I am an attorney in private practice, licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in Massachusetts. I concentrate in computer law, academic issues in higher-education law, and copyright law.   The description of my legal services gives more detail.

My German-language page for clients in German-speaking countries.

My curriculum vitae gives my credentials in physics and electrical engineering, a bibliography of my publications, and a summary of my professional experience.

My fees and terms.

Contact Dr. Standler.   < < < < <

Photograph of Dr. Standler.

I can easily travel to towns in northeastern Massachusetts, or to the Boston area, including Cambridge, MA.

Biography of Dr. Standler


During 1967-77, when I was a full-time physics student, I took the usual physics classes to prepare me to do research and solve problems in almost any area of classical physics. There are some themes in physics, such as oscillations and motion of waves, that occur in many areas of physics (e.g., mechanics, acoustics, optics, electromagnetism, plasma physics, etc.), and understanding these themes make it easier to learn new areas of physics.   After earning my doctorate in physics in 1977, I was a professor for 10 years and an employee of, or consultant to, industry for 7 years.   During 1971-79, I did scientific research in atmospheric physics, including lightning.

Owing to decreases in funding for pure scientific research in atmospheric physics, I switched careers to electrical engineering. During 1982-93, I did engineering research in protection of electronic circuits from electrical surges (i.e., transient overvoltages), such as caused by lightning, switching inductive loads, and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from nuclear weapons. My career in engineering built on my previous experience in physics research, in which I designed and built some of my electronic instruments and protected them from lightning.

During 1971-93, I wrote more than 35 archival papers in science and engineering, plus one book that has been in print for twenty years, and I am an inventor on three U.S. Patents.   In 1990, the annihilation of financial support for scholarly research in all of my areas of physics and electrical engineering forced me to change careers.

legal career

I had been interested in privacy law and First Amendment law since the 1960s and I had worked as a consultant on scientific evidence to litigators, so I decided in 1995 to become an attorney.

When I was a full-time law student during 1995-98, I broadly studied torts, contracts, and constitutional law, as well as intellectual property law. I used the same broad, general approach to law that served me well in my previous career as a physicist and electrical engineer. An attorney who has a narrow focus in only one specialty can miss analogies from other areas of law when novel or nonroutine cases arise. In the area of computer and technology law, new technologies are continually creating novel or nonroutine cases.

My earlier career as a professor for 10 years helps me understand and solve problems in higher-education law, just as my earlier experience in scientific and engineering research for more than 16 years helps me understand torts involving technology and also appreciate the importance of intellectual property law.

Since becoming an attorney in Massachusetts in December 1998, I have continued to learn law, mostly by assigning myself legal research projects on topics that interest me. Some of these self-assigned projects became essays with citations to statutes, cases, and law review articles.   You can see my intense interest, enthusiasm, and scholarly approach to law in the more than 60 essays at my websites.   I have also gained experience through work for my legal clients in Massachusetts, and from my nationwide consulting to litigators.

My Essays About Law

Essays on this website are provided only to provide general information and to communicate my personal comments on interesting topics in law, technology, and society. Essays on this website are neither legal advice nor legal opinion. Accessing this website or reading documents on this website does not create an attorney-client relationship. See my disclaimer for details.

All essays at this website are protected by copyright. I have posted my Terms Of Service for printing, copying, and distributing my essays at this website.

I am an attorney only in Massachusetts, so I can not provide legal advice to people in other states of the USA, unless they have been injured or sued in Massachusetts. However, I have posted the following hints for how to find an attorney.

Table of Contents

  1. Computer & Technology Law — computer hardware and software, Internet, e-mail, damage by electrical surges, electric power problems, as well as meteorology law (e.g., lightning, cloud seeding, liability for negligent weather forecasts)

  2. Higher-Education Law — academic issues in college and university law

  3. Copyright Law — protecting and rewarding authors

  4. Miscellaneous Essays on Law — U.S. Constitutional law (e.g., freedom of speech and other constitutional rights), employment law for professionals, and family law

  5. Privacy Law — both protection for private facts and limits on government intrusion into personal life

If you enjoy my essays, I would appreciate your hiring or recommending me as a consultant.

To make this homepage smaller, in Jan 2009 I moved the links to my essays from this homepage to five separate webpages, one for each topic in the above list.



Copyright 1997-2009 by Ronald B. Standler
this document is at   http://www.rbs2.com/index.htm
first posted 4 Jan 1997,   revised 31 May 2009.

Contact Dr. Standler.   < < < < <

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