Howard Shelanski


Howard Shelanski is an American attorney, economist, and legal scholar. He is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University and a Partner in the law firm of Davis, Polk & Wardwell. He served in the Obama administration as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, part of the Office of Management and Budget at the White House.

Early life and education

Howard Shelanski was born in Philadelphia. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Haverford College in 1986, his Juris Doctor from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 1992, and his Ph.D. in economics from University of California, Berkeley in 1993.

Career

After graduating from law school Shelanski clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Louis H. Pollak of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, and Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court. He practiced law with the Washington, D.C. firm of Kellogg Huber Hansen Todd & Evans until 1997. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1997, where he remained until moving to Georgetown Law in 2011. Shelanski's teaching and research have focused on antitrust and regulation.
Shelanski was Senior Economist for the President's Council of Economic Advisers from 1998 to 1999, Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2000, Deputy Director from 2009 to 2011 and Director from 2012 to 2013 of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Economics. President Obama nominated Shelanski to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on April 25, 2013 and confirmed to the post on June 27, 2013. His term ended when the Obama Administration ended, on January 20, 2017.