Smith Replacing Ham at Helm of T-Mobile D.C. Office

DLA Piper’s Smitty Smith is leaving the law firm to replace Kathleen Ham as T-Mobile senior vice president-government affairs, when Ham retires Oct. 2, T-Mobile said Thursday. Smith’s title will be senior vice president-public policy and government affairs. Smith is a former FCC and NTIA staffer, who was once seen as a contender to chair the FCC under President Joe Biden (see 2101010001). Smith was also a member of the Biden FCC transition team. At the FCC, he was an aide to former Chairman Tom Wheeler and led the Incentive Auction Task Force. Ham is a longtime T-Mobile official and an FCC veteran where she was deputy chief of the Wireless Bureau and the first chief of the spectrum auctions program, working on some of the first FCC auctions. “Kathleen’s contributions to T-Mobile are numerous,” a spokesperson emailed: “Over nearly 20 years at T-Mobile, she has played a critical role in driving key policy and regulatory efforts, including the completion of the transformational T-Mobile/Sprint merger and obtaining critical spectrum assets that have secured the company’s 5G leadership position.”