P. Michele Ellison became Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau on September 28, 2009, and was appointed to the post by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. In this capacity, Ms. Ellison leads the FCC’s largest organizational unit and oversees nearly all of the enforcement work carried out by the agency.
Before assuming her current role, Ms. Ellison held a number of other senior-level positions over her nearly fifteen years at the FCC. Ms. Ellison served as Acting General Counsel in 2009, as Deputy General Counsel from 1997 to 2009, and as Deputy Associate General Counsel from 1995 to 1997. In addition to her duties within the Office of General Counsel, Ms. Ellison also served as Transition Counsel to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, and provided leadership in other policy areas, including co-chairing the Commission’s Localism Task Force, leading a Task Force on expanding communications opportunities to small businesses and developing countries, and serving as senior advisor to former Chairman Kennard on a variety of agency-wide substantive and operational matters.
Before joining the Commission, Ms. Ellison was a partner with the law firm of Williams and Connolly, with a varied litigation practice. Ms. Ellison began her career as a law clerk for the Honorable Damon J. Keith in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Detroit, Michigan and for the Honorable Paul R. Webber III in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.
