Staff Changes at the FCC

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the appointment of Zachary Katz as Chief Counsel & Senior Legal Advisor. Katz will succeed Rick Kaplan, who recently became Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. As Chief Counsel, Katz will manage the Commission’s overall policy agenda, and will be responsible for policy coordination among the Bureaus and Offices. In addition, he will continue to have specific responsibility for wireline, international and Internet issues, including universal service reform, Open Internet, and satellite matters.

In addition, Chairman Genachowski announced that Sherrese Smith, currently a Legal Advisor, will also become Senior Counsel; and Amy Levine, currently Special Counsel, will also take on a new role as a Legal Advisor. In her role as Senior Counsel & Legal Advisor, Smith will oversee the Media, Consumer, and Enforcement bureaus. Levine will take on new responsibilities overseeing the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering & Technology, adding to her portfolio that currently includes spectrum auction policy and public safety issues.

Katz currently serves as a Legal Advisor to Chairman Genachowski after serving as Deputy Chief of the Commission’s Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis. He joined the FCC in 2009 from the White House Counsel’s Office and previously practiced law at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles, focusing on transactional and litigation matters involving intellectual property. Katz served as a law clerk for the Honorable Kim M. Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after receiving his law degree from Yale, where he was Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Law Journal and active in the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization. Before law school he worked with technology companies at a strategy consulting and investment firm in Silicon Valley.

Meanwhile, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell announced that Erin McGrath will be joining his staff as Acting Legal Advisor for media issues. Rosemary Harold, who has served as Legal Advisor for media issues to Commissioner McDowell since September 2008, has decided to begin considering other opportunities outside the Commission.

McGrath has worked at the Commission since March 2000, most recently as Assistant Division Chief in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s Mobility Division. During this time, she engaged in numerous rulemaking proceedings, was instrumental in the review of several major wireless and media transactions, and managed post-auction licensing matters. She also served as the interim Legal Advisor to Commission Meredith A. Baker for wireless, international, and public safety issues. Ms. McGrath received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.