$2.1 billion Frontier Communications has appointed Kathleen Quinn Abernathy as chief legal officer and executive vice president of regulatory and government affairs. As a result of her new role, Abernathy resigned from Frontier’s board of directors, a role she had been in since April 2006.

Abernathy is widely recognized as a global expert in telecom and media regulatory and policy matters. She comes to Frontier from the law firm Wilkinson Barker Knauer, where she was a partner specializing in the practice of communications law. She advised clients on a wide range of issues involving legal, telecommunications, and media regulation and has served as an expert witness in various courts and as an arbitrator of complex telecommunications disputes.

She served as a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission from 2001-2005, chaired the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, and participated as a U.S. representative in numerous international bilateral and multilateral negotiations. Prior to joining the FCC, Kathleen was vice president for public policy at BroadBand Office Communications; a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer; vice president for regulatory affairs at U.S. West; and vice president for federal regulatory affairs at AirTouch Communications. Earlier in her career, she was legal advisor to two FCC commissioners and a special assistant to the agency’s general counsel.