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President Obama Nominates FCC Commissioners

By Teresa Cajot On Monday, President Obama nominated two Washington lawyers to serve as commissioners to the Federal Communications Commission. Ajit Varadaraj Pai, a partner at Jenner & Block, and Jessica Rosenworcel, senior counsel to Senator John Rockefeller IV, both have experience working at the FCC and on Capitol Hill.

Pai has been with Jenner & Block since April. Prior to that his experience includes time served as the FCCs deputy general counsel, associate general counsel, and special advisor to the general counsel. He has also served as the chief counsel to the US Senate Judiciary Committees Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights; senior counsel at the Office of Legal Policy in the US Department of Justice; and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications Inc. Pai started his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Martin L.C. Feldman of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and then as an Honors Program trial attorney in the Telecommunications Task Force at the US Department of Justices Antitrust Division. He earned his JD from the University of Chicago and holds a BA from Harvard University. Rosenworcel worked for Senator Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) from 2007 to 2008 and served in a number of positions within the FCC between 1999 and 2007. She served as a senior legal advisor to Michael Copps; legal counsel to the bureau chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau; and attorney advisor in

the policy division of the Common Carrier Bureau. Prior to joining the FCC, she worked as a communications associate at Drinker, Biddle & Reath. As the senior communications counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee, she has worked with Senator Rockefeller (D-W.VA) since 2009. She holds a JD from New York University School of Law. If the nominations are confirmed, Rosenworcel will fill the seat of Michael Copps whose term will come to a close in December, and Pai will replace Meredith Attwell Baker, who left her position earlier this year and now serves as the senior vice president for government affairs at the Comcast Corporation. The nominations could go before the US Senate within the next few weeks due to the fact that the FCC is only staffed by four commissioners, rather than its usual five. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski called Pai and Rosenworcel two outstanding choices for the commission and for the American people. Given their talent, leadership and expertise in our space, they would both play an invaluable role in the FCC.

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