Kenneth P. Mortensen

J.D., M.B.A., BSEE (ECE)

Kenneth P. Mortensen is currently attached to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as a Senior Advisor to the Privacy Office. He was formerly a partner of the law firm Harvey & Mortensen, the predecessor firm to Harvey Ballard & Bornstein.

Mr Mortensen practiced primarily Information Technology and Knowledge Management law. In addition, he headed the firm's consulting arm, Harvey Mortensen Consulting, providing high technology and Internet development consulting services to law firms, businesses, and governmental entities. Mr. Mortensen's clients ranged from start-up and established corporations to state attorneys general requiring assistance dealing with complex technology law and management issues.

Mr. Mortensen continues to assist the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General regarding technology and Internet matters and aids the Office in website design and business system development concerns. He has advised the Antitrust Bureau of the New York State Attorney General providing guidence on the management of information resources. Additionally, Mr. Mortensen is a Professor of Law with the Adjunct Faculty of the Graduate Tax Program at the Villanova University School of Law where he teaches Digital Law, Electronic Commerce Law, and Security and Privacy Law courses and at West Chester University, where he teach Cyber Crime Law.

Mr. Mortensen was a Teaching Fellow at Villanova University School of Law until June 1997, where he taught information law and, since September, 1993, was the Director of Operations for the Center for Information Law and Policy, headed by Dean Henry H. Perritt, Jr, of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. He continues to be involved in information law research through work with Villanova and Chicago-Kent and his affiliation with the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.

He consulted formerly through his own enterprise, KPM Associates, with Philadelphia area firms concerning computer automation of their businesses. Prior to that, he served as hardware design engineer for Unisys Corporation in the large systems division. He earned his B.S.E. degree in electrical and computer engineering from Drexel University, and his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law and his M.B.A. from Villanova University College of Commerce and Finance. He is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey bars.

Mr. Mortensen has presented programs on legal and technical matters around the country, including Philadelphia, Atlanta, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.. He has been a faculty member on programs for the Practicing Law Institute, including the PLI course, "What Lawyers Need to Know About the Internet: Basics for the Busy Professional." He has taught a number of Pennsylvania Bar Institute courses and worked on a pilot seminar with the Delaware Bar to conduct Continuing Legal Education courses over the Internet. With other members of the Center for Information Law and Policy, he has produced an outreach seminar the help attorneys, accountants, and other professionals integrate the Internet and computer technologies with their substantive practice.

On the Internet, Mr. Mortensen was the creator of the most comprehensive resource on the Internet for accessing the United States government on-line, The Federal Web Locator. Many federal agencies use The Federal Web Locator as their main index to other offices and departments within the federal government and even within their own agency. Since 1994, the Federal Web Locator received high praise from national publications because of its focus on access to the federal government. Additionally, Mr. Mortensen was the founding editor-in-chief for the Villanova Information Law Chronicle, an Internet publication that deals primarily with issues surrounding information law and policy development for the National Information Infrastructure.

Mr. Mortensen developed the first on-line access point to federal court opinions through the Internet for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which is available on the Center's Internet server. In an affiliated undertaking, Mr. Mortensen coordinated a national effort between law schools to place the opinions of all the federal courts of appeals on the Internet. He developed a home page for the federal judiciary on the Internet, The Federal Court Locator, which links together federal court information on the Internet.

Additionally, Mr. Mortensen was the co-founder of the Legal Domain Network, an information network designed to consolidate and coordinate all substantive legal information and discussions on the Internet. He has written papers on the combination of network and computer technology and the law, including ‘Surfing for Substance: A Research Methodology for the Internet,’ ‘Bridging the Gap: Internet Based Mandatory Continuing Legal Education,’ and ‘The Superfund Reform Act of 1994, Potentially Responsible Parties' Friend or Foe?: A Procedural Framework for Quick, Fair, and Efficient Allocations.’ He has co-written a technical paper with Dean Perritt, 'Connecting to the Internet' that describes how lawyers can get started with the Internet. He participated in the first hypertext publication conference for legal information at the Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School.

Mr. Mortensen brings a unique background to the legal profession. He has designed high density gate arrays for use in large scale mainframes at Burroughs Corporation, implemented manufacturing test procedures for large population computer boards at Unisys, installed local area networks with customized legal information peripherals in law firms, and managed a small computer consulting business, KPM Associates.

At the Law School, he supervised the litigation portion of the Information Law Clinic that provides students the opportunity either to enhance their writing skills through preparation of an article dealing with information law or to develop their practitioner skills by participating in a legal proceeding directly concerned with information law. Additionally, he assisted Dean Perritt teaching Villanova’s Computer Law course that concentrates on how computer technology is affected by and affects the law.

At the Center he directed the day-to-day operations, coordinating the programming tasks and business initiatives. Mr. Mortensen oversaw the staff of the Center that includes a technology consultant, a network administrator and student assistants.

He continues to research possible governmental policy objectives concerning the automation and dissemination of information electronically. He teaches regularly the use of the Internet and its various interfaces. He aids professors, students, and legal practitioners using the Internet.