Douglas D. Orvis II
A former associate general counsel at Meta, who spent close to five years at the company advising on a range of global telecom and technology issues, has joined Davis Wright Tremaine LLP's Washington, D.C., office as a partner, the firm announced Tuesday.
Douglas D. Orvis II brings to the team three decades of experience advising communications carriers, tech companies such as Meta and Tata Communications and newer startups on a range of associated regulatory, enforcement and policy issues.
He has spent the past six years working in-house, most recently with Meta for a little more than four and a half years as senior associate general counsel, the firm said. Before that, he worked as an in-house regulatory counsel with Tata Communications, where the firm said he helped serve as the primary U.S. regulatory lawyer for related issues with the Federal Communications Commission.
Orvis, a University of California College of the Law, San Francisco graduate, spent close to a decade at Bingham McCutchen, which in 2014 merged with Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. He spent another four years there before joining Tata Communications in 2019, according to his LinkedIn profile.
During an interview with Law360 Pulse on Wednesday, Orvis said that in a similar way to how he had considered leaving private practice, he had been drawn to Davis Wright because he was ready to try something new.
What he really missed from his time in private practice was working with a number of different companies and "really understanding issues across the entire spectrum of communications and tech companies," he said.
"I was with one group of people, through a bunch of different firms, for almost 20 years, and you get to do things a particular way," Orvis said. "And while I was at Meta, I saw a lot of different outside counsel, and what worked and what didn't, and I was just incredibly impressed with the Davis Wright Tremaine platform."
Orvis started his career with Graham & James, according to his LinkedIn profile, then moved to Swidler Berlin LLP, which later became a part of Bingham McCutchen.
Orvis said he really values that the Davis Wright team understands "the line between traditional, regulated communications and the Wild, Wild West of the tech industry," which "is a pretty blurry line these days."
Orvis' career has centered on working with network and data deployment issues, such as those related to deployment. Some of that work has involved issues related to telecommunications infrastructure, colocation, interconnection agreements and other matters.
Orvis' responsibilities as a Meta subject matter expert included consulting with business teams and product counsel on new features, the associated risks of those features and with the company's general relationships with telecommunications providers.
Orvis also helped respond to government inquiries and helped coordinate the legal review of responses to ongoing rulemakings related to those telecommunications efforts, the firm said.
During his time with Morgan Lewis, Orvis represented Securus, a company that provides calling services to the incarcerated, in a dispute over that company's increase in rates for calls.
K.C. Halm, co-chair of the firm's technology, communications and privacy and security practice at Davis Wright, said in a statement that Orvis' regulatory and transactional expertise "will significantly deepen our bench."
"His arrival adds significant depth to our integrated technology and communications team on the East Coast, advancing one of the firm's important strategic goals," Halm said.
Chip English, Davis Wright's D.C. partner-in-charge, said in a statement that the team was excited to welcome Orvis to the firm.
"Doug's rock-solid substantive skills, collaborative approach, and entrepreneurial spirit align well with our culture and long-term plans for growth," he said.
Oct 29
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