Anne Toomey McKenna

Visiting Professor of Law, University of Richmond
Anne Toomey McKenna (she/her), formerly Penn State Dickinson Law’s Distinguished Scholar of Cyber Law & Policy and co-hire with Penn State’s Institute for Computational & Data Sciences (ICDS), moved to Richmond during the pandemic and is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at University of Richmond School of Law. Professor McKenna remains Affiliated Faculty with ICDS, and she currently serves as Co-Chair of IEEE’s Privacy, Equity, and Justice in AI Subcommittee. Professor McKenna teaches Civil Procedure, Evidence, Information Privacy Law, and Cyberlaw in Practice (a course she developed).

In addition to her extensive legal teaching experience, Professor McKenna is also a trial attorney with two-plus decades of complex civil litigation experience in federal and state courts in Maryland and the District of Columbia. Her work includes representing, advising, consulting, and educating government agencies, courts, businesses, educational institutions, and individuals about these increasingly intersecting subject matter areas:

* emerging technologies and the law, including artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, and biometric systems
* electronic surveillance
* data laws and data practices (including health, financial, and PII privacy compliance and handling breaches)
* school and workplace privacy
* website practices and terms
* satellite surveillance and data, including geolocation tracking and geodata
* social media and online content/speech/tort issues, including mis- and disinformation and national security
* statutory claims, including ECPA and CFAA
* electronic evidence.

McKenna’s publications include:

· Jones on Evidence, 7th Ed., Fishman, Clifford S, & McKenna, Anne T. (Thomson Reuters), cited by numerous federal and state courts including the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the First, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh Circuits, and the District of Columbia Circuit

· Wiretapping & Eavesdropping: Surveillance in the Internet Age, McKenna, Anne T. & Fishman, Clifford S. (West/Thomson/Reuters) cited by numerous federal and state courts including the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits

· The Role of Satellites and Smart Devices: Data Surprises and Security, Privacy, and Regulatory Challenges, 123 Penn State L. Rev. 591 (2019), McKenna, Anne Toomey; Gaudion, Amy C.; Evans, Jenni L.

· Pass Parallel Privacy Standards or Privacy Perishes, McKenna, Anne T., 65 Rutgers L. Rev. 1041 (2013)

· Pending: Cyberlaw in Practice, McKenna, Anne Toomey (forthcoming Wolters Kluwer casebook)

Her work has also appeared in Blink-an Atlantic publication, The Conversation, and Science Node. Professor McKenna’s news media interviews and quotes include NPR’s Morning Edition, The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Boston Globe, the New York Post, Vice, Bloomberg Law/Radio, and NBC, FOX, and CBS news. She is also one of the lead interviewees in the 2020 documentary, Interference: Democracy at Risk. Among her pro bono work, Professor McKenna has represented victims of revenge porn and online stalking, and she helped obtain a published First Amendment victory in Connecticut’s Supreme Court for a murder victim’s family’s right to post missing posters.

Pursuant to a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA), Professor McKenna was the lead faculty creator of Principles of Cyber Law & Policy, a course published in 2019 as part of NSA’s national cyber workforce educational initiatives. She also served for two years (2014-2016) as the Principal Legal Consultant for the Department of Justice-COPS’s initiative: the Use of UAVs (drones) in Community Policing. She has collaborated extensively with multiple federal agencies, international corporations, and universities around the world on matters related to privacy, cybersecurity, online platforms, emerging technologies, and the law. McKenna started her litigation career at the law firm of Miles & Stockbridge in its Baltimore Office on Light St.

McKenna is licensed to practice in federal and state courts in Maryland and the District of Columbia.