Scott Blake Harris ’76, managing partner of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis in Washington, D.C., has been nominated by President Barack Obama ’91 to be general counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Harris, one of the District’s top communications lawyers, represents clients before the Federal Communications Commission. He was chief counsel for export administration at the Department of Commerce, where he undertook the first complete rewrite of the Export Administration Regulations in 25 years. From 1994 to 1996, he was the first chief of the international bureau at the FCC, where he was responsible for international and satellite communications policy and licensing.
Prior to his government service, Harris was a partner at Williams & Connolly. From 1996 to 1998, he was a partner and chairman of the communications practice at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In 1998, he helped found Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis.
He recently received the prestigious Marconi-Bell Award from the National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers for his work in developing an industry-government agreement on spectrum use that was adopted by the World Radio Conference. He has also been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught The Law in Cyberspace and International Telecommunications.