Free Press Vet Carmen Scurato Joins FCC

FCC's 2020 seal
(Image credit: FCC)

Jessica Rosenworcel has tapped a policy veteran, Carmen Scurato, to be her legal advisor for consumer and public safety issues, and shuffled some of the responsibilities of her current legal advisors.

Most recently, Scurato had been association legal director and senior counsel for telecommunications, privacy and technology, for Free Press, which has long advocated for the net neutrality rules, media competition, and broadband subsidy spending that are also priorities for Rosenworcel.

Scurato's resume also includes VP of policy and general counsel for the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the FCC's Consumer Advisory Committee and work with the Department of Justice.

If nominee-in-waiting Gigi Sohn were to make it on the commission, Scurato would be a familiar face. They shared a dais in March 2019 when both testified before Congress about the anticompetitive effects of a Sprint-T-Mobile merger, even sitting side by side and Sohn shaking her head in agreement at Scurato's testimony about the deal's harms.

In other legal advisor moves, David Strickland, who has been assistant bureau chief in the Enforcement Bureau, will serve as legal advisor, media, while Ethan Lucarelli will be legal advisor for wireless and international and Ramesh Nagarajan will be legal advisor for wireline and enforcement. ■

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.