Impact

IST Alumni Spotlight: Costello bridges gap between technology, policy

After graduating magna cum laude from Penn State, Megan Costello earned a juris doctor degree from the University of New Hampshire School of Law. Credit: Emilee Spokus / Penn StateCreative Commons

Bridging the gap between the languages of technology and policy with TechnoLAWgical, her Pennsylvania-based solo law practice, attorney Megan Costello (IST, Class of 2008) has been named to the Information Sciences and Technology Alumni Spotlight for February 2015.

Costello, who always knew she wanted to pursue a career in law, has been a fan of technology since childhood.

“As soon as I was big enough to put my hands on the keyboard, I was obsessed with computing, technology and gaming,” said Costello. “It was natural for me to choose technology when I began thinking of college.”

While still in high school, Costello attended a Web design certificate program offered by Penn State, and immediately thereafter began working as a Web master. As an undergraduate student at Penn State, she worked on a team to create an ad-hoc mesh network with the Center for Network-Centric Cognition and Information Fusion (NC2IF) and completed internships at the Luzerne County Courthouse and at GE Aviation in Cincinnati, which she said gave her a solid background in computing and problem solving.

After graduating magna cum laude from Penn State and receiving her juris doctor degree at the University of New Hampshire School of Law in 2012, Costello worked as an attorney for Elliott & Davis P.C. law firm in Pittsburgh, where she sought to use her technology background to help other technologists make sense of the often confusing language of law policy. Building upon her work in developing a cyber law division for Elliott and Davis, Costello created TechnoLAWgical in 2013 as a way to be accessible to technologists in a relaxed atmosphere without being tied to a brick and mortar business.

TechnoLAWgical, which Costello said is purposefully less formal and more flexible than traditional law practices to put technologists at ease, is a labor of love. “Being able to work with amazing individuals on the bleeding edge of technology and law, it’s fascinating,” said Costello. “I wish I had more time at work, but there’s only one of me and so I’m limited by what I can do.”

In addition to her law practice, Costello also teaches Introduction to Security and Risk Analysis (SRA111) at Penn State’s World Campus and offers technology-based continuing education for attorneys. In her spare time, she can be found swing dancing, practicing archery, enjoying the outdoors and, of course, gaming.

Costello’s dedication to law and technology is an inspiration to IST students who wish to blend their love of cutting-edge technologies with policy making, and she hopes to reach out to those individuals during IST Start-Up Week (to be held April 13-17) and through mentoring opportunities at Penn State.    

“IST helped me become more of a team player and take leadership roles because in this college, people work in groups to reach common goals,” said Costello of her time as a student at Penn State. “That is such a valuable lesson to learn and it benefitted me enormously.”

Costello’s "Look Before You Leap: A Developer's Guide to Copyright Infringement and Stopping Secondary Liability Before It Starts," was published in the World Jurist Association's Law and Technology Journal. She is also a contributing author of "Data Security and Privacy Law" and "Computer Software and Hardware Agreements." Costello maintains a blog to make the law interesting and relatable to her readers at http://technolawgical.tumblr.com/.

Each month, IST Alumni Spotlight showcases and recognizes outstanding IST alumni for their success as leaders in their professional field and for the impact they have had and will continue to have on society and their profession. This exceptional alum should be an outstanding role model for prospective and current IST students. To make an IST Alumni Spotlight nomination, go to http://ist.psu.edu/alumni/ist-alumni-spotlight-nomination-form.

Last Updated February 11, 2015