SAMUEL L. FEDER (SAM), Partner Publications · Professional Activities Washington, DC Office Office: (202) 639-6092 Fax: (202) 661-4999 Email: sfeder@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

Samuel L. Feder is a partner in the Firm's Litigation Department.  He is a Co-Chair of the Communications Practice and is a member of the Media and First Amendment Practice.  Mr. Feder represents telecom, media and technology companies in a wide variety of matters, including litigation, proceedings before regulatory agencies and transactions.  Mr. Feder was formerly the General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as well as a senior legal and policy advisor to two FCC Commissioners.

Mr. Feder served as the FCC’s General Counsel from 2005-2008.  In that capacity, Mr. Feder managed an office of 50 attorneys, advising the Chairman and the other Commissioners on all significant issues facing the agency, such as net neutrality, regulation of cable television, content regulation of the media, media ownership and spectrum auctions.  Mr. Feder also represented the FCC in litigation before the federal courts of appeals on numerous matters.  He successfully defended imposition of 911 and universal service rules on Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) providers, upheld application of the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) to broadband services and defeated a petition to stay the Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum action.  In addition, as General Counsel, Mr. Feder coordinated agency review of all transactions requiring FCC approval, and he participated in decisions on some of the most significant telecom mergers and acquisitions in history, including the SBC/AT&T, Verizon/MCI and AT&T/BellSouth transactions.

Prior to becoming General Counsel, Mr. Feder served as a legal and policy advisor to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and to Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.  As an advisor, he participated in numerous decisions before the agency, including orders on intercarrier compensation, deregulation of broadband infrastructure, local number portability, enabling secondary markets in spectrum, providing satellite operators terrestrial flexibility, rules for unlicensed devices and review of the ALLTEL-Western Wireless and Sprint-NEXTEL transactions.  Mr. Feder also acted as liaison to senior industry representatives, congressional staff, consumer groups and state regulators.

Prior to joining the FCC, Mr. Feder was an associate at two Washington, DC firms specializing in appellate and telecom work.  For two years, he was a civil trial attorney at the Federal Programs Branch of the United States Department of Justice, where he focused on constitutional and administrative law.

Mr. Feder is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association.  He has twice co-chaired the FCBA’s Judicial Practice Committee.

Mr. Feder received his J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1995, where he received the Daniel H. Grady, Class of 1908, and Maurice Weigle awards for achieving the highest scholastic average in the class at graduation, after second year, and after first year, respectively.  He also served as a Note Editor of the Michigan Law Review.  Mr. Feder received his A.B. cum laude from the College of William and Mary in 1992.  He clerked for the Honorable Edward R. Becker of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.  Mr. Feder is a member of the bar of the United States Supreme Court, the District of Columbia and Maryland bars, and the bars of numerous federal courts.

In 2010, Mr. Feder was recognized by Chambers USA in the Telecom, Broadcast & Satellite: Regulatory category and by The Legal 500 - United States in the Media, Technology, and Telecoms: Telecoms and Broadcast Regulatory category.

Mr. Feder is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Hiring Executive Committee and Chair of the DC Hiring Committee.