Scott Blake Harris, Managing Partner of Crest Hill Advisors has been a legal and policy professional in Washington, D.C. for forty-eight years, primarily focused on communications, technology, and energy issues. He has deep experience both in government and in the private sector.
Prior to founding Crest Hill Advisors, Scott served as the Senior Spectrum Advisor and Director of the National Spectrum Strategy at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce. He previously served in government as General Counsel of the Department of Energy, as the first Chief of the International Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission, and as Chief Counsel for the Bureau of Export Administration (now the Bureau of Industry and Security or BIS) at the Department of Commerce. While at DOE, Scott also served as Co-Chair of the Broadband Subcommittee of the White House National Science and Technology Council.
In 1998, Scott co-founded the law firm of Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP (now HWG LLP) and served as its first Managing Partner and later its first Chairman. Scott has also served as General Counsel of Neustar, Inc. and as Co-Managing Partner of Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP. Earlier in his career, he was 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 in 1977. Scott served as a law clerk to the Hon. Gerhard A. Gesell on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upon graduation from law school. He is a magna cum laude graduate of both Brown University and Harvard Law School.
Scott has received many honors during his career. He was named both as a “Visionary” and as 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 Scott with the Marconi-Bell Award for his private sector work on unlicensed spectrum. He has also been deemed an “Eminent Practitioner” and “Senior Statesperson” by Chambers USA for his work in the telecommunications sector.