The New York Times and International Herald Tribune Profile Richard Wiley

June 3, 2003

Washington, DC—The New York Times and International Herald Tribune published a on Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP Managing Partner Richard E. Wiley on the day the Federal Communications Commission voted to revise a media ownership rule that Wiley, as FCC Chairman in 1975, put into place. Now, nearly 30 years later, Wiley, as head of the firm’s Communications Practice, has been lobbying for the revision.

Explaining his position shift on the issue, Wiley told The New York Times, "The world has demonstrably changed since then. I think my earlier handiwork is outmoded. It was a good rule for 1975. We were concerned at the time that newspapers would dominate television, which people forget had only really been created 20 years or so earlier. It's almost been 30 years later and many things are different."

The report said that Wiley is the "top lawyer and chief Washington strategist" and "by all accounts the most influential media and telecommunications lawyer in the United States." The paper also said, "The firm has the most enviable list of clients in the field. It has supplied more lawyers to the important telecommunications posts in the Bush administration than any other firm, and it is perceived to be the best-connected law practice in the field."