Ajit Pai, '97, Nominated to Federal Communications Commission

President Obama nominated former Federal Communications Commission deputy general counsel Ajit Pai, '97, on Monday to fill one of the two vacancies on the Commission left by Republican Meredith Attwell Baker's departure to join Comcast earlier this year and Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps' eventual retirement.

Pai is currently a partner at Jenner & Block and was mentioned as a candidate in 2009 when Baker was appointed. He previously served as chief counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Civil Rights and as senior counsel at the Office of Legal Policy at the Justice Department

Pai began his career as a law clerk to Judge Martin Feldman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and then joined the Justice Department as an Honors Program trial attorney in the Telecommunications Task Force of the Antitrust Division.

He has also served as associate General Counsel at Verizon. Pai holds a B.A. from Harvard University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.