Ari Q Fitzgerald

Practice Areas

Ari Fitzgerald leads the firm's Communications, Internet, and Media practice. He provides strategic, legal, and policy advice on a wide range of communications and spectrum policy issues to some of the world's largest and most dynamic communications network operators and equipment manufacturers, as well as industry trade associations and investors.

Ari enjoys helping automobile manufacturers and suppliers, medical device manufacturers, drone manufacturers, and other technology companies bring new and innovative communications-related products and services to market. In recognition of his path-breaking contributions to the wireless industry, he is one of only three attorneys to have ever been inducted into the Wireless History Foundation’s Wireless Hall of Fame.

Career

Ari had a distinguished career in government before joining the firm as a partner in 2001. He was a legal adviser to former FCC Chairman Bill Kennard, as well as Deputy Chief of the FCC's International Bureau. He also worked as a legal adviser in the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, where he advised the White House, executive branch agencies, and the U.S. attorney general on constitutional and federal statutory interpretation matters.

Ari started his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable H. Lee Sarokin, U.S. district judge, and worked for several years after his judicial clerkship as legal counsel to former U.S. Senator Bill Bradley. Ari worked as a financial analyst in the corporate finance department of the global investment bank First Boston Corporation before entering law school.

Professional Memberships

Board of Directors, Crown Castle International

President, Duke Ellington Fund

Vice President, Yale Law School Alumni Executive Committee

Federal Communications Bar Association

Advisory Committee, Mobile Future

Advisory Committee, Spectrum Bridge

Personal

Ari serves on the board of directors of Crown Castle International, a large, publicly owned operator of towers, fiber optic cable, and other communications infrastructure, and on the advisory board of several private technology companies and policy advocacy organizations. He also serves on the board of several nonprofit entities, including the Yale Law School Fund Board, as secretary of the Multicultural Media and Telecommunications Council, as president of the Duke Ellington Fund, and as an advisory board member of Catholic Charities Legal Network.