Genachowski Makes Staff Appointments

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski announced today the appointment of Zachary Katz as chief counsel and senior legal adviser.  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, Genachowski announced that Sherrese Smith, currently a legal adviser, will also become senior counsel; and Amy Levine, currently special counsel, will also take on a new role as a legal adviser.  In her role as senior counsel and legal adviser, 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 is a legal adviser to 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. Before law school he worked with technology companies at a strategy consulting and investment firm in Silicon Valley.

Smith is currently a legal adviser to Genachowski.  Prior to that appointment, she was most recently VP-general counsel of Washington Post Digital.  Before that, Smith was a member of the Intellectual Property group at Arnold & Porter.

Levine is a special counsel to the chairman with a focus on matters concerning public safety, spectrum and accessibility, including spectrum auction policy; creation of a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network; and deployment of E911 and NG911 technologies. Levine most recently served as principal communications policy adviser to Rep. Rick Boucher, former chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, and Rep. John Dingell, former chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Previously, she was legislative counsel to Sen. Claire McCaskill and practiced law at Covington & Burling in the firm’s communications and media law group.