At a time when few women pursued advanced degrees in science or the law, Pauline Newman received a B.A. degree from Vassar College in 1947, an M.A. in pure science from Columbia University in 1948, Ph.D. degree in chemistry from Yale University in 1952, and an LL.B. degree from New York University School of Law in 1958. She worked as research scientist for the American Cyanamid Co. from 1951 to 1954, when she began her 30-year career at FMC Corporation as patent attorney and house counsel. She took a leave from FMC in the early '60's to be a science policy specialist in the Department of Natural Sciences of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and she was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Diplomatic Conference on the Revision of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property from 1982 until she was appointed to the Federal Circuit by President Ronald Reagan. Judge Newman is Distinguished Professor of Law, George Mason University (adjunct faculty) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.