McDowell Leaves Wiley Rein For Cooley, Joins With Basile as Head of Practice

now is a partner at Cooley. With Michael Basile, McDowell is co-leader of Cooley's global communications practice, said McDowell. The two communications lawyers succeed practice head John Feore, who remains a partner at Cooley. Feore "wanted to pass the baton to the younger generation," said a Cooley spokeswoman. McDowell said "many" clients remain with him in his new practice, which the firm representative said has 15-20 lawyers in Washington and many more globally. The entire firm employs 900-some attorneys, said McDowell. The "energy, breadth and depth of the Cooley platform is simply irresistible and it’s a very exciting firm that is bringing a lot of new companies, disruptive new companies, to market," McDowell said. Cooley is a multinational firm with many practices including securities, capital formation and litigation, he said. Wiley has been a smaller law firm than Cooley, and more focused on communications, with a lobbying outfit that last month said it renamed itself Signal Group. During September, DLA Piper said it hired two well-known attorneys from Wiley who used to help run Wiley Rein practices in the communications area, others left the firm (see 1609290039), and it promoted David Gross and Kathleen Kirby to co-chairs of the Telecom, Media & Technology practice (see 1609070040). Wiley Rein looks "forward to continuing to maintain a personal and professional relationship with" McDowell, said Gross in a written statement. "The firm is strategically transforming and growing our preeminent Telecom, Media & Technology Practice, which remains the largest in the country.” Richard Wiley, a former Republican FCC chairman who is the firm's chairman emeritus, co-founded the firm in 1983. Like Basile, Feore came to Cooley when it bought Dow Lohnes almost three years ago (see report in the Oct. 16, 2013, issue). Cooley was founded in Silicon Valley in the 1920s.