Apple hires drone and aviation law specialist to lobby Washington
What you need to know
- Apple has hired a drone and aviation law specialist as a lobbyist.
- Lisa Ellman, of Hogan Lovells, will lobby Washington on Apple's behalf.
- Ellman is the head of the law firm's Unmanned Aircraft System's practice and a co-founder of the Commercial Drone Alliance.
Apple has hired drone and aviation law specialist Lisa Ellman as a Washington lobbyist, according to reports.
As reported by Bloomberg:
Ellman has reportedly been working with Apple since December, however, the filing was only made public this week. It further notes that Ellman also worked in the Obama administration and the Justice Department early on in her career.
According to the report, Apple lobbied the government on similar issues in both 2017 and 2018, specifically on the topics of "unmanned aerial vehicles" and "autonomous vehicles and unmanned aviation" respectively.
There doesn't seem to be any clear indication as to what specifically Ellman has been brought on board for:
It seems unlikely that Apple would bring on board a lobbyist simply because of its vested interest in the sale of third party drones. It seems more likely that Apple is investigating the use of its own unmanned aerial equipment for commercial purposes.
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Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design. Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9