Mr. Maher is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Morrison & Foerster LLP and is a member of the firm’s Communications practice. Mr. Maher has over twenty years of experience with the telecommunications industry as a lawyer in private practice, a government policy maker, and an engineer. Mr. Maher joined Morrison & Foerster in January 2005 after serving from 2002 to 2004 as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Mr. Maher advises clients on a wide range of telecommunications issues involving federal, state, and international telecommunications regulation. Mr. Maher has broad experience with technologies such as Internet-based voice and broadband services that challenge traditional communications services. Mr. Maher’s practice focuses on representing competitive stakeholders, including Internet service providers and wireless companies, as well as large business users of telecommunications services. Mr. Maher also counsels a wide variety of clients on the telecommunications regulatory implications of transactional matters, including mergers, acquisitions, stock spin-offs, and new business ventures.

Mr. Maher has represented clients in administrative proceedings before the FCC, in appellate litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and before several Executive Branch agencies. Mr. Maher has testified before Congress on telecommunications issues, and has been an expert witness on United States telecommunications policy before the Canadian Radio and Telecommunication Commission. Mr. Maher has spoken extensively to state regulators, industry groups and foreign governments on telecommunications, and has acted as a party-appointed arbitrator in commercial arbitrations that address these issues. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America (2007 – 2009) as a leader in the field of communications law.

As head of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, Mr. Maher supervised the development of U.S. policies regarding Internet services, including Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. Mr. Maher oversaw FCC proceedings seeking to reform the U.S. intercarrier compensation system as well as universal service policies. He also helped to advance U.S. policies regarding broadband deployment and competitive access to the network elements of incumbent telecommunications carriers.

Prior to Mr. Maher’s service as FCC Bureau Chief, he was a partner at a Washington, D.C., telecommunications law firm for 8 years. Earlier, Mr. Maher was an associate administrator for policy at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce and special counsel at the FCC. Before becoming a lawyer, Mr. Maher worked as an engineer for AT&T Bell Laboratories.

Mr. Maher received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1984. He also received a S.M. in Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 1978.