Georgetown Law

Sarah Whitesell is an Adjunct Professor of Law who teaches Telecommunications Law & Policy. With nearly three decades of practice in the areas of telecommunications and antitrust law, Professor Whitesell has held a variety of senior management roles at the Federal Communications Commission, most recently as the Deputy Chief of the Media Bureau. Among Professor Whitesell’s other positions at the Commission were Legal Advisor to the Commission’s first Acting Chairwoman, Legal Advisor to two other FCC commissioners, and management roles in the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, the International Bureau, and what was previously the Common Carrier Bureau.

Professor Whitesell has also served as a member of the Telecommunications Task Force for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and as an associate at the law firm that is now Wilmer Hale LLP. She previously taught telecommunications law as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and legal writing as an adjunct professor at George Washington University Law School.

From 2016 to 2018, Professor Whitesell served as the Co-Executive Director of a national non-profit devoted to improving the legal representation for domestic violence survivors in interstate custody cases, overseeing the legal and policy work of the organization, as well as fundraising and finances. Professor Whitesell continues her nonprofit work in several capacities, including as Chair of the Board of Identity, Inc., a large nonprofit that serves Latino and other traditionally low income youth and their families in Montgomery County, providing social and emotional, academic, and job readiness and workforce development support.

Ms. Whitesell graduated from Davidson College and the Yale Law School and clerked for the Honorable Jane R. Roth, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.