Chief of Staff, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Mr. Delacourt is Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission. In this role, he manages the Chairman's policy agenda and strategic initiatives and serves as Chief Operating Officer for the Agency. He has a broad range of experience in telecommunications and technology law and policy spanning both the governmental and private sectors. Scott joined the FCC from Wiley Rein LLP where he served as Partner and Chair of the Wireless Practice Group. He previously served in leadership positions at the FCC, including Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief of Staff of the Wireless Bureau, Senior Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, and Legal Advisor to the Wireless Bureau Chief. Scott received his Law Degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, and his Bachelor’s Degree, summa cum laude, from Georgetown University.
Visiting Fellow, Hudson Institute
Michael O’Rielly is a visiting fellow with Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet.
Comm. O'Rielly was nominated for a seat on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama on August 1, 2013 and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on October 29, 2013. He was sworn into office on November 4, 2013. On January 29, 2015, he was sworn into office for a new term, following his re-nomination by the President and confirmation by the United States Senate and served through December 11, 2020.
Prior to joining the agency Commissioner O’Rielly served as a Policy Advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip, led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn, since January 2013. He worked in the Republican Whip’s Office since 2010, as an Advisor from 2010 to 2012 and Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director from 2012 to 2013 for U.S. Senator Jon Kyl.
He previously worked for the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate as a Policy Analyst for Banking, Technology, Transportation, Trade, and Commerce issues from 2009 to 2010. Prior to this, Commissioner O’Rielly worked in the Office of U.S. Senator John Sununu, as Legislative Director from 2007 to 2009, and Senior Legislative Assistant from 2003 to 2007. Before his tenure as a Senate staffer, he served as a Professional Staff Member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2003, and Telecommunications Policy Analyst from 1995 to 1998.
He began his career as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley from 1994 to 1995.
Commissioner O’Rielly received his B.A. from the University of Rochester.
Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP
Matthew Brill, Global Chair of the Communications Law Practice and a member of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice, is a nationally recognized communications lawyer and former FCC senior official. He represents clients in litigation, regulatory, and transactional matters.
Vice President, Policy & Advocacy, USTelecom – The Broadband Association
Kristine (Fargotstein) Hackman serves as Vice President, Policy & Advocacy at USTelecom – The Broadband Association. In this role, she advocates on behalf of USTelecom members before the White House and Executive Branch, regulatory agencies, courts and other government entities in Washington, DC and state capitals to ensure members can compete, grow and thrive. Prior to joining USTelecom, she held several roles at the FCC, including Acting Wireline Advisor to Chairman Ajit Pai, Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, Legal Advisor to the Wireline Bureau Chief, and Attorney Advisor in the Wireline Competition Bureau. She also was detailed to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Communications and Technology Subcommittee where she worked on broadband infrastructure, net neutrality, and spectrum, among other connectivity matters. Before her legal career, Kristine led public service initiatives at the National Association of Broadcasters.
Kristine graduated from the George Mason University School of Law where she developed a dedicated communications law concentration, and for the past five years has served as an adjunct professor of Communications Law. She is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and a former co-chair of its Young Lawyers Committee.
Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
Russell P. Hanser has nearly 20 years of experience working in communications law and commercial litigation. His practice focuses on the regulation of next-generation broadband services and IP-enabled applications, information privacy, Universal Service, intercarrier compensation, and a range of other issues faced by the information and communications technology industry. Mr. Hanser’s clients include wireline carriers, mobile wireless providers, cable operators, Internet service providers, equipment manufacturers, private equity funds, and investment advisors.
Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Hanser worked at the FCC, where he held senior positions in the Wireline Competition Bureau and the Office of General Counsel, and served as wireline Legal Advisor in the Office of Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law, where he teaches telecommunications law. He has previously been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of New Hampshire Law School and the George Washington University Law School. Following law school, Mr. Hanser clerked for Judge Norman H. Stahl on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies
Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of the digital age. Mr. Spiwak is a prolific scholar whose work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world, and is in the top 1.3%of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network. Mr. Spiwak currently serves as the co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (FCBA) committee responsible for overseeing the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL and is a member of the program committee of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (“TPRC”). Mr. Spiwak is also the recipient of the FCBA’s Distinguished Service Award. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center, Mr. Spiwak was a Senior Attorney with the Competition Division in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel from 1994-1998. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was accepted into the Presidential Stay-In School program where he was responsible for delivering classified and confidential material among senior White House and Reagan Administration officials and received a full FBI security clearance. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies
Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of the digital age. Mr. Spiwak is a prolific scholar whose work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world, and is in the top 1.3%of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network. Mr. Spiwak currently serves as the co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (FCBA) committee responsible for overseeing the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL and is a member of the program committee of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (“TPRC”). Mr. Spiwak is also the recipient of the FCBA’s Distinguished Service Award. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center, Mr. Spiwak was a Senior Attorney with the Competition Division in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel from 1994-1998. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was accepted into the Presidential Stay-In School program where he was responsible for delivering classified and confidential material among senior White House and Reagan Administration officials and received a full FBI security clearance. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Senior Counsel, FCC
For the past four years, Mr. Degani has served as Commissioner Pai's Wireline Legal Advisor. He joined the office from a detail to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he served as counsel under Chairman Fred Upton and Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden. Before his detail, Mr. Degani served as an Attorney Advisor in the Wireline Competition Bureau's Telecommunications Access Policy Division and Competition Policy Division, as well as the Commission's Office of General Counsel. Mr. Degani entered the Commission through the Attorney Honors Program. Earlier in his career, Mr. Degani clerked for Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and magna cum laude from Yale University, where he studied Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and History.
Partner, DeMarco Law, PLLC
Joseph V. DeMarco is a partner at DeMarco Law, PLLC where he focuses on counseling clients on complex issues involving information privacy and security, theft of intellectual property, computer intrusions, on-line fraud, and the lawful use of new technology. His years of experience in private practice and in government handling the most difficult cybercrime investigations handled by the United States Attorney’s Office have made him one of the nation’s most sought-after lawyers on Internet crime and the law relating to emerging technologies. In addition to his counsel practice, Mr. DeMarco serves as an Arbitrator, resolving complex commercial and high-technology disputes between businesses. He is on the National Panel of Neutrals of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and Federal Arbitration, Inc. (FedArb).
From 1997 to 2007, Mr. DeMarco served an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where he founded and headed the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property (CHIPs) Program, a group of five prosecutors dedicated to investigating and prosecuting violations of federal cybercrime laws and intellectual property offenses. Under his leadership, CHIPs prosecutions grew from a trickle in 1997 to a top priority of the United States Attorney’s Office, encompassing all forms of criminal activity affecting e-commerce and critical infrastructures including computer hacking crimes; transmission of Internet worms and viruses; electronic theft of trade secrets; illegal use of “spyware”; web-based frauds; unlawful Internet gambling; and criminal copyright and trademark infringement offenses. As a recognized thought leader in the field, Mr. DeMarco was frequently asked to counsel prosecutors and law enforcement agents regarding novel investigative and surveillance techniques and methodologies, and regularly provided advice to the United States Attorney concerning the Office’s most sensitive computer-related investigations. In 2001, Mr. DeMarco also served as a visiting Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section in Washington, D.C., where he focused his work on Internet privacy, gaming, and theft of intellectual property.
Since 2002, Mr. DeMarco has served as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Law School, where he teaches the upper-class Internet and Computer Crimes seminar. He has been invited to speak throughout the world on cybercrime, e-commerce, and IP enforcement. He has lectured on the subject of cybercrime at Harvard Law School, the Practicing Law Institute, the National Advocacy Center, and at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, and has served as an instructor on cybercrime to judges attending the New York State Judicial Institute.
Prior to joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Mr. DeMarco was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City, where he concentrated his work on intellectual property, antitrust, and securities law issues for various high-technology clients. Prior to that, Mr. DeMarco served as law clerk to the Honorable J. Daniel Mahoney, United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Mr. DeMarco holds a J.D. magna cum laude from New York University School of Law. At NYU he was a member of the NYU Law Review. He received his B.S.F.S. summa cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
Director, Cybersecurity, USTelecom
Paul Eisler coordinates a variety of cybersecurity and technology objectives, including legal and policy analysis, for USTelecom, the Communications Sector Coordinating Council (CSCC), and the Council to Secure the Digital Economy (CSDE).
President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
Tom has over 15 years’ experience in private practice and public service at the federal and state levels representing clients in high-stakes appellate and regulatory litigation matters. Tom has argued appeals in the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, D.C. and Federal Circuits, and the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Prior to joining Wiley, Tom was the General Counsel at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he served as the agency’s chief legal officer and briefed dozens of appeals – personally arguing two – in the federal courts of appeals in constitutional and administrative law challenges to the FCC’s orders. Tom managed a team of over 70 attorneys and staff and provided consultation and advice on a wide range of practice areas relating to the FCC’s work, including administrative law, appellate and trial litigation, bankruptcy, ethics, fiscal law, fraud, labor and employment, and public records requests. He has spent his career advising clients on all stages of federal agency rulemaking, adjudication, and litigation, in fields ranging from communications to environmental law to securities to labor and employment. He frequently speaks and writes on legal issues and his articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Review, Forbes, and Newark Star-Ledger.
Mike Jayne is an attorney for the U.S. Department of Education. Previously, he worked for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Chief of Staff, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Mr. Delacourt is Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission. In this role, he manages the Chairman's policy agenda and strategic initiatives and serves as Chief Operating Officer for the Agency. He has a broad range of experience in telecommunications and technology law and policy spanning both the governmental and private sectors. Scott joined the FCC from Wiley Rein LLP where he served as Partner and Chair of the Wireless Practice Group. He previously served in leadership positions at the FCC, including Deputy Bureau Chief and Chief of Staff of the Wireless Bureau, Senior Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, and Legal Advisor to the Wireless Bureau Chief. Scott received his Law Degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, and his Bachelor’s Degree, summa cum laude, from Georgetown University.
Visiting Fellow, Hudson Institute
Michael O’Rielly is a visiting fellow with Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet.
Comm. O'Rielly was nominated for a seat on the Federal Communications Commission by President Barack Obama on August 1, 2013 and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on October 29, 2013. He was sworn into office on November 4, 2013. On January 29, 2015, he was sworn into office for a new term, following his re-nomination by the President and confirmation by the United States Senate and served through December 11, 2020.
Prior to joining the agency Commissioner O’Rielly served as a Policy Advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip, led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn, since January 2013. He worked in the Republican Whip’s Office since 2010, as an Advisor from 2010 to 2012 and Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director from 2012 to 2013 for U.S. Senator Jon Kyl.
He previously worked for the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate as a Policy Analyst for Banking, Technology, Transportation, Trade, and Commerce issues from 2009 to 2010. Prior to this, Commissioner O’Rielly worked in the Office of U.S. Senator John Sununu, as Legislative Director from 2007 to 2009, and Senior Legislative Assistant from 2003 to 2007. Before his tenure as a Senate staffer, he served as a Professional Staff Member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2003, and Telecommunications Policy Analyst from 1995 to 1998.
He began his career as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley from 1994 to 1995.
Commissioner O’Rielly received his B.A. from the University of Rochester.
A Conversation with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act Landscape after Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants
Scott D. Delacourt, Michael O'Rielly
On May 6, 2020, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Barr v. American Association...
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Ensuring Due Process at the Surface Transportation Board
Lawrence J. Spiwak
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
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It’s Time to Resolve the 2014 AWS-3 Auction Designated Entity Dispute
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A Conversation with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act Landscape after Barr v. American Association of Political Consultants
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In late March, Free Press, a D.C.-based advocacy organization, filed a petition with the Federal Communications...
Working From Home: Cyber Hygiene in the COVID Crisis
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Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...