WASHINGTON: Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski made two staff appointments this week in what was described as the “first in a series of announcements regarding senior staff.” Steven VanRoekel was brought on as a managing direction, and Austin Schlick as general counsel.
VanRoekel has over 18 years of information technology and management experience and was most recently a top executive in the Windows Server and Tools division at Microsoft, where he worked for 15 years.
Schlick was most recently chief of the Civil Division of the Office of the Maryland Attorney General, responsible for the state’s civil litigation at the trial and appellate levels. He previously served at the FCC as deputy general counsel for litigation and as acting general counsel. Prior to that, worked for the Department of Justice, where he argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Schlick also was a partner at the Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, specializing in telecommunications law and litigation. He started his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge Abner Mikva of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of the U.S. Supreme Court. Schlick was a legislative assistant to former Sen. John C. Danforth (R.-Mo.)
