M. Anne Swanson, Partner

Long Bio  |  

Anne Swanson is an administrative law expert who helps navigation, aviation, communications, and unmanned vehicle companies solve their regulatory problems. During her 30-plus year career, she has worked on a wide variety of agency rulemakings, enforcement matters, mergers, and financial transactions involving GPS and other device manufacturers, media firms, aviation companies, and investors. More and more, her practice focuses on complex spectrum issues and new technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles and “smart transportation” systems.

A DC native, Anne draws on her experience in all three branches of government to achieve regulatory “wins” for her clients. While her work frequently focuses initially on agency-based challenges – usually before the FAA, FCC, or NTIA – she has utilized clever legislative and judicial strategies, when necessary, to obtain the administrative results clients desire. Ms. Swanson has been recognized by leading publications like Chambers USA, Legal 500, and Super Lawyers as one of the nation’s top administrative lawyers.

Anne is president of the DC Capital Chapter of the Association of Unmanned Vehicles International (“AUVSI”) and serves on the chapter’s Executive Committee. She is also vice chair of AUVSI’s National President’s Council. Anne’s previous professional activities have included service as the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (“FCBA”) president, president-elect, delegate to the American Bar Association (“ABA”), treasurer, and assistant treasurer as well as on the FCBA Nominations Committee; she has served as co-chairman of several of its standing committees, and she was recently elected to another two-year term as the FCBA's ABA delegate. In the 1990s, she served a three-year term on the Governing Committee of the ABA's Forum on Communications.

Prior to private practice, Anne clerked with The Honorable Charles B. Renfrew in the Northern District of California and The Honorable Richard D. Cudahy of the Seventh Circuit. She also spent a year at the White House as editor of the President’s daily news summary, and, throughout college, served as a National Security Council staff intern.