Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Page 4
Governor Reappoints Attorney to Public Utilities Commission
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has reappointed San Francisco attorney Rachelle Chong to the California Public Utilities Commission.
In an announcement issued Friday, the governor said he had appointed Chong, 49, to a six-year term on the commission, which regulates privately owned electric, natural gas, telecommunications, water, railroad, rail transit, and passenger transportation companies, in addition to authorizing video franchises.
A San Francisco Republican who was first appointed to the commission by Schwarzenegger in 2006, Chong will begin her new term Jan. 1, subject to confirmation by the Senate.
Chong was admitted to the State Bar in 1984 after attending UC Berkeley and UC Hastings College of the Law, and began her legal career as an associate lawyer with Kadison, Pfaelzer, Woodard, Quinn & Rossi, in Washington D.C. where she practiced communications law before the Federal Communications Commission until 1987.
She joined international law firm Graham & James in 1989, where she served as an associate attorney, and later as a partner, in the firm’s Public Utilities Department, specializing in matters before the California Public Utilities Commission.
Then-President Bill Clinton appointed Chong a commissioner of the FCC in 1994, where she served for three years, and in 1998 she joined the telecommunications and internet practice group of the Coudert Brothers International Law Firm as a partner, serving for one year.
Since 2001, she has owned Professional Services of Rachelle Chong—her own business as a mediator, arbitrator and expert witness—and has been president of Carina Jewelry. She also served from that year until April of this year as general counsel and vice president of government affairs for BroadBand Office.
Compensation for the position is $128,109.
Copyright 2008, Metropolitan News Company