Former FCC general counsel and later deputy AG in Justice's antitrust division, Jonathan Sallet, has joined law firm Steptoe & Johnson's Washington office.

He will be a partner in, appropriately enough, the practice's antitrust and telecom groups.

Sallet was general counsel at the FCC under Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler from 2013 to 2016, which included coming up with the legal underpinnings, upheld by a federal appeals court twice, for the FCC's decision to reclassify ISPs as common carriers, a decision the current FCC chairman plans to reverse.

Steptoe's Pantelis Michalopoulos, who heads the telecom practice and joined Sallet in defending the Open Internet order in the D.C. circuit, said:  “Jon's dual expertise is a windfall for us. We would be delighted to partner with either the telecom aspect or the antitrust aspect of that expertise, and so we are doubly delighted to have both, fueled by Jon’s intellect.”