https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2011/03/riaa-lobbyist-becomes-federal-judge-rules-on-file
Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica, 28Mar2011
Howell has had a long career in law enforcement. She was an assistant US attorney in New York during the early 1990s and oversaw "numerous wiretap investigations and conducted lengthy grand jury investigations, including cases against the leadership of the Chinatown Flying Dragons gang, extortion cases resulting in the convictions of twenty-nine New York City building inspectors, and a money laundering case resulting in the seizure of $19 million in cash narcotics proceeds," according to her bio.
She then moved to the Senate, where she served as general counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who has close ties to the copyright industries (Leahy is one of the big backers of the COICA Web censorship law that he guarantees will be passed later this year.)
There, Howell helped to write CALEA (the law extending wiretap powers to the Internet) along with the No Electronic Theft Act (providing tougher penalties for online copyright crimes), the DMCA (making it illegal to break or bypass DRM, even if you want to rip a movie from a DVD you own to your iPod), and the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Deterrence Act.
She then moved into private life at Stroz Friedberg, where she began lobbying for the RIAA, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Between 2004-2009, Howell was the only listed lobbyist at the firm; the RIAA was her exclusive lobbying client for most of that time. A lobbyist disclosure form describes her as working on "legislation concerning copyright laws as applied to digital music"—which she would be well-placed to do, having previously helped to write such laws.
Howell made some small donations to Barack Obama. When Obama won the presidency, for instance, Howell gave $327 to help fund inaugural events in DC.
In 2010, the Obama administration tapped her to move back into government, serving as a federal judge. In December, she was installed in the DC District Court, where the US Copyright Group filed most of its mass P2P lawsuits. Howell took on several of the cases.
A respected legal mind, Howell's published work focuses more on privacy, government surveillance, and the PATRIOT Act. Back in 2004, she won a "First Amendment Award" from the Society for Professional Journalists for her work expanding the Freedom of Information Act. She also serves on the US Sentencing Commission since being appointed by George W. Bush, helping to craft appropriate sentencing guidelines for use by US judges.
And she's currently listed as a "Board Alum" for the Center for Democracy & Technology, which generally stands up for Internet privacy, opposes COICA in it current form, and objected to Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.
Howell's work at Stroz Friedberg also went well beyond RIAA lobbying; the FBI even gave her a "Director's Award" during her time at Stroz Friedberg for her "valuable contributions" to a case the Bureau investigated.
Howell isn't some one-dimensional industry shill; she was a philosophy major at Bryn Mawr, has three kids, and her husband works as a producer for National Geographic Television & Film. But lobbying money tends to raise questions when the lobbyists move back into public life.