FCC Commissioner Pai Names Wireline Adviser

FCC Commissioner Ajit V. Pai today announced the appointment of Nicholas Degani as his legal adviser focusing on wireline issues. “I am delighted that Nick has agreed to join our team,” said Pai. “His breadth and depth of knowledge along with his engineering background will be a tremendous asset to our office.  I especially look forward to Nick’s wise counsel as we continue down the challenging path of reforming universal service and intercarrier competition.”

Degani comes to Pai’s 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.  His portfolio included communications issues and agencies, with a focus on the Universal Service Fund, intercarrier compensation, privacy, cybersecurity, agency jurisdiction and spending, and the administrative process.

Prior to that, Degani was an attorney adviser in the Wireline Competition Bureau’s telecommunications access policy division, where he worked on issues related to the Universal Service Fund’s low-income and schools and libraries programs, as well as contributions and eligible-telecommunications-carrier issues. Degani has also worked in the commission’s Office of General Counsel and the Wireline Competition Bureau’s competition policy division, where he worked on pole attachment issues, transaction review, broadband policy, and numbering issues related to Internet-based telecommunications relay services. Degani entered the commission through the Attorney Honors Program in 2007.

Earlier in his career, Degani served as a law clerk 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.