Former FCC Commissioner McDowell Joins Wiley Rein

Former Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Robert M. McDowell joined Wiley Rein LLP’s Washington, DC office as a partner in the firm’s communications practice.

McDowell will provide strategic legal, business, and public policy advice to clients on domestic and international matters in the telecommunications, media, technology and digital media industries. McDowell was originally nominated for the FCC by President George Bush in 2006 and renominated by President Barack Obama in 2009. McDowell graduated cum laude from Duke University. After serving as chief legislative aide to a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, he attended the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary. Upon his graduation from law school, McDowell joined the Washington office of the national law firm Arter & Hadden. Prior to joining the FCC, he was senior vice president for the Competitive Telecommunications Association (CompTel), an industry group representing competitive facilities-based telecommunications service providers and their supplier partners. He also was the executive vice president and general counsel of America’s Carriers Telecommunications Association (ACTA), which merged with CompTel in 1999. Most recently, he was a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet.