Professionals
ADONIS E. HOFFMAN, Esq.
Founder and CEO
The Advisory Counsel, LLC
Adonis Hoffman has worked at the intersection of business, law and policy since coming to Washington from California to serve in the 97th Congress as Legislative Director to a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Hoffman is a noted lawyer, strategist and thought leader with over 30 years of high-level legal, government and international experience in media, communications, public policy and corporate affairs. Throughout his career, Hoffman has been a trusted advisor to Fortune CEOs, directors and boards; U.S. policymakers and regulatory agencies; foreign leaders, international organizations and embassies; trade associations; private equity, hedge funds and institutional investors and media companies on a range of global and domestic issues.
As CEO of The Advisory Counsel LLC, Hoffman provides sage advice and strategic counsel to organizations and investors on compliance, risk, M&A, diversity, inclusion and reputation management, as well as regulatory and public policy developments affecting environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters. Read More
See also, Adonis Hoffman Website and Media Content
Corporate Strategist and Advisory Counsel, Attorney Adonis Hoffman, Esq.
Senior Advisors
Subject Matter Experts
The Advisory Counsel team of advisors and consultants have distinguished careers in business, law, public policy and regulatory affairs. Their experience and expertise include high level service in federal, state and local government, in addition to being elite advisors to CEOs, boards, international organizations, diplomats, foreign governments, trade associations, non-governmental organizations, community groups, financial institutions and institutional investors in the U.S. and abroad.
Patricia Gatling, Esq.
Patricia Gatling is a leading human rights and civil rights attorney, who served as Chair of the New York City Human Rights Commission and Deputy Secretary for Human Rights in the State of New York. Gatling is the former First Assistant District Attorney, Kings County District Attorneys office and Special Assistant Attorney General at The Office to Investigate the New York City Criminal Justice System. She provides corporate crisis and diversity counsel and internal investigations. More
Rev. Jacques DeGraff
A national expert on business diversity and corporate governance, Rev. Jacques A. DeGraff is a noted advocate for economic and social justice and equity for minority and women owned businesses. One of New York’s Black Power 100, DeGraff served as Co-Chair of the Nielsen Advisory Council, Chair of the News Corp Community Awards and Vice President of NY 100 Black Men. He is a regular contributor on FOX NEWS and has been featured in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Read more
Bernadette B. Paolo, Esq.
Bernadette B. Paolo is an attorney and internationally-recognized expert on human rights and foreign policy. She served in the U.S. Congress as Staff Director of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, as Scholar-in-Residence at Duquesne University, and as an Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard. Ms. Paolo was President of The Africa Society and was appointed to the Presidential Trade Advisory Committee for Africa under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. More
F. Glenn Harvey, JD, MBA
Glenn Harvey is an investment banker with over 30 years of merchant banking, private equity, CFO and corporate finance experience. He is the Founder of the Pro Players Network and several social impact initiatives. Mr. Harvey's distinguished career in finance includes key positions at Comerica Bank, Credit Lyonnnais, Sumitomo Bank, Citicorp and as COO of Broadway Federal, a legacy African American financial institution. Harvey is active in philanthropic and humanitarian initiatives.
Deborah A. Lathen, Esq.
Educated at Harvard Law School and Cornell University, Deborah Lathen is among the nation's leading corporate and regulatory lawyers. She is a Founding Board Member of the DC Office of Government Ethics and Accountability; a former Director at British Telecom (BT) and Board Member of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council. Lathen was appointed Chief of the Cable (now Media) Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She provides counsel on corporate governance. Read more
Hon. Victor O. Frazer, Esq.
The Honorable Victor Frazer, Esq. has a distinguished career, having served in the U.S. House of Representatives (I-USVI) during the 104th Congress; Counsel to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Counsel to the District of Columbia Committee. He previously worked in the Interstate Commerce Commission, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and the Virgin Islands Water & Power Authority. He began his career at Manufacturers Hanover Bank. He is admitted to practice law in New York, Maryland, Dist
Charles R. Jones, Esq.
Charles R. Jones, Jr. brings over 30 years of corporate, litigation, transactional, administrative, regulatory and legislative experience to his legal work for corporations, financial institutions, healthcare technology firms, trade associations and business leaders in the U.S. Mr. Jones is known nationally for his expertise in building strategic alliances and joint ventures between minority business enterprises (MBEs) and Fortune corporations across sectors.
Please contact theadvisorycounsel@gmail.com for more information
Leadership Profile
ADONIS HOFFMAN, Esq.
Founder and CEO
Mr. Hoffman is a lawyer, business strategist and noted thought leader with over 30 years of high-level legal, government and international experience in media, communications, public policy and corporate affairs. He has worked with CEOs, corporate boards and Fortune corporations, policymakers, foreign leaders, trade associations, institutional investors, embassies, and international organizations on a range of global and domestic issues. Hoffman provides strategic advisory counsel to organizations and investors on compliance, risk, M&A, diversity, inclusion and reputation management, as well as regulatory and public policy developments as part of his branded Advisory Counsel series.
Hoffman served from 2013 - 2015 as Chief of Staff and Senior Legal Advisor at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), working with the FCC Chairman, Commissioners and senior staff on key communications policy matters, including Net Neutrality; media ownership; broadcast and wireless spectrum; wireless and broadcast auctions; re-transmission agreements; privacy enforcement; consumer protection, TCPA, and mega mergers in the media, broadband and internet sectors, including Comcast - TWC - Charter; ATT - DirecTV, and over a dozen broadcast and telecom transactions. He served earlier at the FCC from 1998-2000 as Deputy Chief of the Cable Bureau and Policy Advisor to the FCC Chairman, where he worked on the ATT- Media One merger and the AOL - Time Warner merger, and was appointed chair of the Inter-agency Task Force on Advertising Practices.
Mr. Hoffman served in the U.S. House of Representatives (102nd Congress) (97th, 98th Congresses) in senior legal and policy positions, including committee counsel and subcommittee staff director for the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Legislative Director for a Member of the House, and staff counsel to the District of Columbia Subcommittee on the Judiciary.
Hoffman was later appointed senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, and Fellow at the Capitol Policy Institute in Washington. His work in constitutional and electoral reform took him to thirty countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and allowed him to lead several delegations of international election observers.
From 2000-2010, Hoffman worked as senior vice president and counsel at the American Association of Advertising Agencies (the 4As), responsible for legislative, regulatory and legal matters, and represented the advertising industry before Congress, the FTC, and federal courts. Hoffman helped lead the advertising industry's self-regulatory initiatives, including food marketing, advertising to children, and online consumer privacy initiatives. Mr. Hoffman established and chaired the American Business Leadership Institute; consulted with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and served as a member of the National Advertising Review Board (NARB). He worked as Managing Director with Capitol Exchange Corporation; associate attorney at Hopkins & Sutter; and commercial banker at Bank of America.
Hoffman is a Contributor to The Hill newspaper, and his articles have been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Broadcasting & Cable, The Washington Times, Multichannel News, National Journal and Foreign Policy. He has appeared on CNBC, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, PBS, Voice of America, Canadian Broadcasting, and numerous international networks, and has been widely quoted in national news media, including AP, Reuters, Time, and USA Today. Hoffman's Wall Street Journal article on the TCPA was cited in the Petitioner's Brief in Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez in the U.S. Supreme Court, 2015. Hoffman is the author of Doing Good--the New Rules of Corporate Responsibility, Conscience and Character (2010).
He is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Media Institute, co-chairman of the External Advisory Council of Nielsen Media, and chairman of of the Appellate Board of the Direct Selling Self-Regulatory Council. Mr. Hoffman earned an A.B. from Princeton University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. He is admitted to practice law before the District of Columbia. Court of Appeals; the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; the U.S. Court of International Trade and the United States Supreme Court.