Joshua Lamel

Joshua Lamel is a Vice President and head of the firm’s tax, trade and technology practice at BGR Group. Joshua’s previous Capitol Hill experience includes serving as counsel to current Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Chief of Staff to former House Ways and Means member Kendrick B. Meek.

Joshua has over a decade of technology industry experience, having served as Vice President at the Computer and Communications Industry Association and Senior Vice President, Commercial Policy and Government Affairs, at TechAmerica. Additionally, he was Senior Vice President and Washington, D.C., Technology Practice Lead at Hill + Knowlton Strategies. His work has brought him to the forefront of many key technology industry policy fights throughout the years, including tax reform, health care reform, international corporate taxation, budget reform, innovation policy, telecommunications competition and intellectual property.

His work on innovation policy began as an early advocate for an open Internet, working on the seminal Vonage vs. Madison River case at the FCC and authoring the first-ever introduced legislation to preserve an open Internet. He also served on the legal team at the FCC opposing the mergers of SBC with AT&T and Verizon with MCI. He led efforts on Capitol Hill to reauthorize the Internet Tax moratorium, promote a balanced copyright system, protect fair use, and move forward with a national broadband deployment strategy. He played a crucial role in the battle to stop SOPA and PIPA, working closely with his former boss and mentor Senator Ron Wyden to ensure PIPA did not get a vote on the Senate floor. Moreover, Joshua has led a coalition of over 20 trade associations, companies and not-for-profits seeking significant reform to the current software patent system and ending the scourge of patent trolls.

Joshua is an expert on economic policy, including the federal budget and tax policy. He is a frequently quoted and sought after panelist on the economics of the federal budget, innovation policy and tax reform. His proposals while working in the Senate on tax reform and budget reform have garnered national attention, including editorial board support from many of the top newspapers in the United States.

Joshua has a Bachelor of Arts from Colgate University with High Honors where he currently serves as an alumni mentor in the Thought Into Action Entrepreneurship Institute, an incubator for undergraduate students. He has a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan and is a member of the bar of New York and the District of Columbia. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Meredith, and their two children.