Commissioner James H. Cawley

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Photo credit: Amy Spangler

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Commissioner Cawley is a 1967 graduate of St. Bonaventure University and a 1970 graduate of Notre Dame Law School. He began his legal career in 1970 as one of the seven original law clerks serving the judges of the newly-created Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. He was later appointed Majority Counsel to the Pennsylvania Senate Consumer Affairs Committee where he drafted several major amendments to Pennsylvania’s public utility laws and assisted with codification of those laws. In 1977, he was appointed Chief Counsel to the Senate Majority Floor Leader. Thereafter, he was twice nominated and confirmed as a member of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, serving from November 1979 until September 1985. Then he returned to the private practice of law with a concentration on administrative law and appellate practice. His clients included a wide array of public utilities and competitive telephone, electric and natural gas providers.

He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Administrative Law at Widener University School of Law and is a frequent faculty member of Pennsylvania Bar Institute courses on appellate advocacy, public utility law and ethics.

He returned to the Commission in 2005, serving as both Vice Chairman and Chairman, and received a second term ending March 31, 2015.

On January 27, 2010, he was appointed by the Federal Communications Commission to serve as one of the four state utility regulators on the Federal-State Joint Board for Universal Service created by Congress in 1996 to ensure the availability of telecommunications services throughout the nation.  He was elected State Chairman of the Board in January 2011.