Michael Smith, PhD
Director of Technology
Data, evidence, and scientific rigor held to a pharmaceutical standard: every fact captured, every step documented, every claim built to survive an audit.
Serious injury and medical malpractice cases often turn on tiny details scattered across thousands of pages: a vital sign recorded at the wrong hour, a subtle revision in a chart, or a small inconsistency between two accounts. Michael Smith brings the clinical rigor of a regulated global industry to Cavaliere & Mangiaracina so that critical details are not missed.
Michael spent 14 years in pharmaceutical research and development, including a historic 12-year tenure at Moderna, where he rose from Scientist to Director of Process Development. During the pandemic, he led the Phase I clinical manufacturing for the COVID-19 vaccine and scaled the process for the global supply, a monumental effort featured by CNN Heroes and New York Magazine. A lead inventor on four lipid-nanoparticle patents and a widely published author in top peer-reviewed journals, Michael spent his career operating under a strict scientific rule: if it is not documented, it did not happen.
Today, Michael applies that exact data discipline to our clients' legal cases. As our Director of Technology, he builds and runs the firm's custom, in-house evidence systems under the close supervision of our attorneys. His systems are built so that massive mountains of medical and corporate records are completely captured, deeply organized, and instantly searchable.
By bringing a scientific approach to legal evidence, Michael helps our attorneys find the clarity a case turns on. At our firm, technology never replaces a lawyer's human judgment. It makes the record clearer.
“What wasn’t rushed, was this thing that I care so much about — the technology involved.”
New York Magazine called him “a self-described nano-particle geek who has spent his career focusing on units in the order of one-billionth of a meter.”
“It was emotional for me as a scientist,” he told the magazine of watching the first trial participant receive the vaccine.
