RigNet taps Jamie Barnett, from Venable, as senior vice president-government services ... Wiley Rein promotes as partners-telecom, media and technology Edgar Class and Ari Meltzer ... Lewis Brisbois hires Rich Goldberg, ex-DOJ, as partner-data privacy and cybersecurity ... Wireless Infrastructure Association names Kate Forscey, ex-Office of Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., director-legislative affairs ... Sam Rizzo, ex-Office of U.S. Trade Representative, joins Information Technology Industry Council as director-policy, focusing on trade issues.
Cooley expands global cyber-data-privacy and telecom practice with partner Travis LeBlanc, ex-Boies Schiller ... Womble Bond announces new partner and head of telecom team David Carter, ex-Innovista; also joining team from Innovista associates Ernesto Mendieta and John Nelson; senior counsel Howard Shapiro retiring; Erin Fitzgerald hired by FCC as Wireless Bureau attorney-adviser ... Computer & Communications Industry Association hires Keir Lamont, ex-Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, as counsel-privacy, security and emerging technology ... Harris Wiltshire promotes Shiva Goel to partner ... Wilkinson Barker adds Chris Bair, ex-FCC International Bureau, as associate-international and satellite communications.
Having pleaded guilty in 2015 to an antitrust charge and agreed to a $550 million fine (see 1507060031), JPMorgan Chase now is asking the FCC for OK to again have a stake in Ligado. In a docket 15-126 filing Thursday, the investment bank said its stake in Ligado has been held in proxy as part of the FCC's approval of Ligado -- then LightSquared -- emerging from bankruptcy (see 1603170039), but the agency should decide the firm has the qualifications to hold interest in the company and let the proxy agreement expire. It said the foreign currency exchange spot market misconduct that was subject of its antitrust charge was unrelated to Ligado and there has been "significant remedial action" since then. Wiley Rein's Richard Wiley, a former FCC chair, signed the filing.
The FTC has funding to operate through 11:59 p.m. EST Friday, a spokesperson said Thursday. The agency previously said it would operate through at least mid-day Friday if there were a lapse in funding (see 1812210048). The agency’s latest contingency plan shows it operating at about 23 percent in a shutdown. Employees working Friday can complete shutdown responsibilities before the end of the work day, the spokesperson said.
Tom Navin, ex-Wiley Rein, joins Facebook as global policy director-connectivity and access ... Jenner & Block advances AnnaMarie Van Hoesen to partner-entertainment and intellectual property ... CPB promotes Maja Mrkoci to chief content and innovation officer ... Vbrick names Christian Rockwell, ex-Sparta Systems, chief marketing officer.
Assistant to Agriculture Secretary-Rural Development Anne Hazlett says department's Bette Brand becomes acting administrator of USDA’s Rural Utilities Service and remains administrator, Rural Business-Cooperative Service ... Media Institute board designates Richard Kaplar president-CEO, says Chairman Richard Wiley, who stays in that post; Kaplar had previously remained executive director after being promoted to the group's head (see this section in the Dec. 6, 2017, issue).
Tech/telecom-minded Sen.-elect Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., will likely sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2019, lobbyists and industry officials told us. Republican leadership is seeking a female member given the criticism it took for an all-white-male majority reviewing Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation. Blackburn declined comment.
With targets such as Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Verizon, plus speculation about his own political ambitions, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's monologue at the FCBA Chairman’s Dinner Thursday was a wide-ranging roast. Noting the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup win, Pai said it's "interesting the Capitals won only after they dropped Verizon from the building. Correlation? Causation? I don't know." He joked that Amazon didn't buy a table at the dinner "because the FCBA refused to fork over $600 million in subsidies." Facebook has faced controversy about privacy violation allegations and antitrust uncertainty, he said, but its "recent search innovation will ensure nobody in China will know about any of it." He singled out those at the American Cable Association table as "the only folks ... to be mentioned positively in a tweet by the president" (see 1811130039). Likening T-Mobile's planned buy of Sprint to the sitcom The Office, Pai said it's "up to the FCC to decide, are they more like Jim and Pam or Dwight and Angela? Because I never thought Dwight and Angela's relationship was necessarily in the public interest. A bunch of investment analysts now have to binge watch The Office." Pai said if the communications universe received a false emergency alert about an inbound ballistic missile due in 30 minutes, like the one received by Hawaiians in January (see 1801160054), Fight for the Future "would immediately start organizing a net neutrality 25 minutes of action" while "NAB would ask the FCC to extend the 39-month incentive auction repacking ... before Washington is destroyed." Sizable portions of the monologue involved sports. Pai, gushing about Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, said, "If the Big Lebowski and a Reese's mug had a baby, it would be Pat Mahomes." The event also featured a "car karaoke" video of Pai and a variety of people -- from Richard Wiley of Wiley Rein to former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn -- singing along with Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" while he drove. Digs at Communications Daily were included. Pai asked attendees if they had read Comm Daily's brief report on wireless pet collars (see 1812030015), saying they can be worn not just by dogs, and his administration is all for "pet neutrality." Pai said he downloaded issues of publications including Comm Daily into an artificial intelligence program that wrote part of this monologue for him. In a serious moment, Pai honored deceased President George H.W. Bush and a number of FCC employees.
Wiley Rein taps Duane Pozza, ex-FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Financial Practices Division, as partner, Telecom, Media & Technology Practice, areas including blockchain, privacy, security, IoT, artificial intelligence and mobile payments ... Telecommunications Law Professionals promotes Jessica DeSimone Gyllstrom, who works on takeovers and submarine and fiber deployments, to member ... Neal Gerber adds Ian Block, ex-Kirkland & Ellis, as partner, intellectual property practice.
The Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee’s FTC oversight hearing Tuesday (see 1811200051) is an opportunity for lawmakers to show bipartisan interest in federal privacy legislation, industry lobbyists told us. With all five commissioners set to testify, it’s also a chance to find out where there's consensus and disagreement within the FTC (see 1811210031), they said.