Andrew Schwartzman

Andrew Jay Schwartzman an attorney and consultant who specializes in media and telecommunications policy and is the Senior Counselor to the Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. He has also been a Lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University School of Arts and Sciences Department of Advanced Academic Programs since 2003.

From 2014 through 2019 Schwartzman served as the Benton Senior Counselor and Lecturer in Law at Georgetown University Law Center’s Communications and Technology Law Clinic, which is part of the Institute for Public Representation.  There, he supervised Georgetown’s students in litigating communications issues before the FCC, FTC and the courts.  Among the major issues in IPR’s docket have been Lifeline, Network Neutrality, privacy, and telecommunications and media mergers.

From 1978 through 2012, Schwartzman headed Media Access Project (MAP).   MAP was a non-profit public interest telecommunications law firm that represented the public in promoting the First Amendment rights to speak and to hear.  It sought to promote the creation of a well-informed electorate by insuring vigorous debate in a free marketplace of ideas.  It was the chief legal strategist in efforts to oppose major media mergers and preserve policies promoting media diversity.  MAP also led efforts to promote openness and innovation on broadband networks and to insure that broad and affordable public access is provided during the deployment of advanced telecommunications networks.

Mr. Schwartzman has testified on numerous occasions before the Congress, the FCC and the FTC on issues such as cable TV regulation, minority and female ownership and employment in the mass media, and on FCC jurisdiction with respect to the Internet.  In recognition of his service as chief counsel in the public interest community’s challenge to the FCC’s June 2003 media ownership deregulation decision, Scientific American honored Mr. Schwartzman as one of the nation’s 50 leaders in technology for 2004.  Mr. Schwartzman is also the 1994 recipient of the United Church of Christ Office of Communication’s Everett C. Parker Award and the 2004 recipient of the Media Matters Life Achievement Award.  In September 2012, Public Knowledge gave him its IP3 award “for a lifetime of work on promoting the public interest in a diverse media market place.”

Schwartzman was the Distinguished Lecturer in Residence at Southwestern Law School’s Biederman Entertainment and Media Law Institute Summer program at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University.  He was also a member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council and served as President of the Board of the Safe Energy Communications Council from 1991 through 2003, and of the Media and Democracy Coalition from 2007-2009.

Mr. Schwartzman was the Law and Regulation Contributor to Les Brown's Encyclopedia of Television and is the author of the telecommunications chapter in the Encyclopedia of the Consumer Movement.  His work has been published in major legal and general journals, including Variety, Electronic Media, The Washington Post, COMM/ENT Law Journal and The ABA Journal.  He has been a frequent guest on television and radio programs such as The Today Show, Nightline, Marketplace Radio, network evening TV newscasts, and All Things Considered.

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968, and its law school in 1971, Schwartzman was staff counsel to the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ.  From 1974 until 1978, Schwartzman worked for the U.S. Department of Energy and predecessor agencies.