Charlie Firestone

Charlie Firestone has been Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program since 1989. For three years he was also the Institute’s Executive Vice President for Policy Programs and International Activities. Previously, Firestone was Director of the Communications Law Program and Adjunct Professor at the UCLA Law School, 1977-90. He was also the first President of the Los Angeles Board of Telecommunications Commissioners. Firestone’s legal career includes positions as an appellate attorney at the Federal Communications Commission, as director of litigation for a Washington DC public interest law firm, and as a communications attorney in Los Angeles. He has argued several communications law cases before the United States Supreme Court and other federal appellate courts. Firestone is a GLOCOM Fellow (Japan) and was a Visiting Professor at the Duke University Terry Sanford Institute in 2003. He holds degrees from Amherst College and Duke University Law School.