Washington, DC - Sep 9, 2009 - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski appointed P. Michele Ellison as chief of the Enforcement Bureau. Ellison will take the helm of the Enforcement Bureau starting on Sept. 28, 2009.

Ellison is currently deputy general counsel, a position she has held for the last 12 years, and most recently served as acting general counsel of the FCC through July 2009. In addition to her other duties, she also was named transition counsel to Commissioner Mignon Clyburn. Ellison joined the Office of the General Counsel in 1995 and has worked on a variety of issues at the agency, from her initial years of handling complex FCC litigation before the federal courts to her current focus on competition policy in the context of mergers and acquisitions and on spectrum and fraud matters.

Ellison also has provided leadership in other policy areas, including co-chairing the Commission's Localism Task Force, leading a task force on expanding communications opportunities to small businesses and developing countries, and serving as senior advisor to former Chairman Kennard on a variety of agency-wide substantive and operational matters.

Before joining the Commission, she was a partner with the law firm of Williams and Connolly, with a litigation practice. Ellison began her career as a law clerk for the Honorable Damon J. Keith in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Detroit, MI, and for the Honorable Paul R. Webber III in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia.