FCC General Counsel Sean Lev is exiting the FCC by the end of the year, acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said Wednesday (Oct. 23).
Lev has been general counsel since June 2012, when he succeeded Austin Schlick, who eventually landed at Google as part of the company's Washington legal team.
"Sean has spearheaded the agency's defense of the Open Internet rules," Clyburn said in announcing Lev's exit. "[H]e has worked extensively on defending the Commission's landmark Universal Service/Intercarrier Compensation Transformation Order, and he has led the Office of General Counsel to major victories in the D.C. Circuit on the Commission's data roaming rules, and in the Supreme Court on the ‘shot clock' rules for wireless facilities siting applications."
The timing should allow incoming FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to pick the next general counsel, though Wheeler's full-Senate vote is being blocked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and just when he will get to come aboard remains a question mark.
