Scott Blake Harris

Scott Blake Harris is the Chairman of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP. He has practiced law in Washington, D.C. for more than forty years, and has had extensive communications, technology, energy, administrative, litigation, trade, and national security law experience.

Mr. Harris re-joined the firm in May 2014, having left in 2009 to serve as General Counsel of the United States Department of Energy. At DOE, he began the first systematic enforcement of the Department’s energy efficiency regulations, coordinated that effort with the EPA’s Energy Star program, and created the Department’s enforcement office.  He also reformed DOE’s rulemaking process to allow more public access and greater transparency, and played a key role in DOE’s efforts to tackle the legal and policy issues raised by smart grid technologies. While at DOE, Mr. Harris also served as Co-Chair of the Broadband Subcommittee of the White House National Science and Technology Council.

Mr. Harris had previously served in government from 1993 to 1996 as the first Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission and as Chief Counsel for Export Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In each of these positions, he initiated major revisions of the regulatory regimes to make them more transparent, accessible, and competition-oriented. Early in his career, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Gerhard A. Gesell on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

In the private sector, Mr. Harris served as the Managing Partner of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis from the founding of the firm in 1998 until his departure in 2009.  Since 2009, he has also served as General Counsel of Neustar, Inc. and as Co-Managing Partner of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.  At Neustar, Mr. Harris was responsible for the technology company’s legal, policy, communications, corporate marketing, and corporate social responsibility functions.  He has also been a partner at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, where he was Chair of the communications practice, and at Williams & Connolly, where began his career in private practice as a litigator.

Mr. Harris has a long history of involvement in the legal and public policy communities. He is currently a member of the State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Policy. He served as Chair of the FCC’s Advisory Committee for both the 2015 World Radio Conference (WRC) and the 1997 WRC, and as a member of the Department of Energy’s Appliance Standards and Rulemaking Advisory Committee. Mr. Harris has also been a member of the Advisory Board of Virginia Tech’s Center for Wireless Communications; Co-Chair of the Council on Foreign Relations Study Group on Information Technology and Foreign Policy; a Trustee of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) Foundation and Co-Chair of the FCBA’s International, Online, Legislative, and Seminar Committees; and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown Law Center.

Mr. Harris has received many honors during his legal career. He was honored as a “Visionary,” and before that was named one of the Top Ten Communications Lawyers, by the Legal Times. He has been honored as a “Dean of the Bar” by, and received an award for Distinguished Service from, the Federal Communications Bar Association. He has also received awards for Outstanding Service from the National Association of State Energy Officials and for Special Achievement from the Chairman of the FCC. The National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers presented Mr. Harris with the Marconi-Bell Award for his work on unlicensed spectrum. Mr. Harris is regularly ranked among the top lawyers in Washington, D.C and the nation by trade publications and the various services that list top lawyers from around the world.