In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the following message to his assistant using his new invention, the electric telephone: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.”
Throughout the next century, the Bell System evolved alongside other innovations: telephotography, the precursor to the fax machine; satellite and cable television; and cellular devices.
Stuart Feldstein, ’63, spent his career navigating the complexities of an ever-evolving telecommunications industry. He began his career in government service with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and later entered the private sector, where he helped shape policy, law, and the industry more broadly for nearly 50 years. He credits the Law School with preparing him for a successful career and has long felt impelled to give back.
Becoming a telecommunications specialist
Feldstein, a double Wolverine, entered the University of Michigan as an undergraduate to study business and enrolled at the Law School after graduation. He found the academic rigor in the Law Quad energizing and challenging right from the start.
“The professors knew your strengths and weaknesses,” says Feldstein. “I had to learn to focus my otherwise scattered brain on the substance of a topic rather than just learning facts that I would repeat back on an exam.”
Feldstein joined the FCC in Washington, DC, after graduating. He worked with the agency for eight years before going to work for the National Cable Television and Telecommunications Association (NCTA), a trade association that represents the interests of the telecommunications industry.
“Shortly after I started with the NCTA, I became the general counsel and oversaw lobbying and litigation for the industry,” he says. “I traveled to give talks to state cable associations and helped plan for the annual conventions. It was an all-encompassing job, and I was very busy. There was never an idle moment.”
During Feldstein’s tenure, the NCTA won a crucial copyright case at the US Supreme Court, successfully obtained amendments to the Communications and Copyright acts, and saw the FCC’s regulation of cable television considerably reduced. He was with the NCTA for seven years before joining Fleischman and Walsh (now Locke Lord LLP), where he continued to apply his expertise in telecommunications law.
While at the firm, Feldstein played a formative role in the creation of a cellular communications company, Metro Mobile, which steadily grew before going public in the 1980s. In 1992, Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) acquired Metro Mobile in what the New York Times reported was the third-largest merger in the history of the telecommunications industry. Feldstein also assisted an entrepreneur in acquiring multiple cable systems starting in 1996, and the resulting company, Medicom, went public in 2000. Feldstein also successfully argued a case against the FCC before the US Supreme Court, involving the imposition of regulatory fees.
Stuart Feldstein, ’63[Michigan Law] … was the fuel that got my engine started.
The impact of community and giving back
After 47 years of living in the Virginia home where they raised their children, Feldstein and his wife, Ellen, recently moved into a retirement community in the Washington Metropolitan Area. They are active in their local Jewish community and are members of the Beth El Hebrew Congregation, where Ellen was an officer and the editor of the synagogue’s newsletter for 25 years.
“The synagogue has been a part of our lives since 1963,” he says. “Our children were educated there, and we have been very active members. It has served us well as part of the community.”
The Feldsteins are also longtime philanthropists. In 1992, they documented a planned gift at Michigan Law through a charitable remainder annuity trust and established the Stuart and Ellen Feldstein Scholarship Fund. They have continued to add to the trust in the years since, and in 2023 increased their gift to the Law School to $3.4 million.
“We knew we wanted to make an impact and that law school has become increasingly expensive,” says Feldstein. “I loved Michigan Law while I attended, and I’ve grown fonder of it as the years go by. It was the fuel that got my engine started.”
