Julie Ann Veach, 55, of Washington, DC died at home, in the embrace of her loving family, on January 31, 2026. Julie’s virtues and pioneering spirit will shine forever. Raised by her devoted parents in West Lafayette, Indiana, Julie’s first passion was music, creating perfect notes on the French Horn for the LSO (the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra) as a mere high school student, and winning the prestigious Keller competition, causing her listeners to gasp in awe at the beauty that “young girl” created from a big brass tube. Teaching music to help support herself while an undergraduate at Purdue University, Julie was the first in her immediate family to earn a college degree, and then, reaching for a bolder future, decided to try law school. Awarded a scholarship to Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, Julie began wide-eyed and worried she was out of her depth. But as with anything she undertook, Julie worked hard and thrived. Finishing in the top three percent of her class, she clerked for the Honorable Judge Michael S. Kanne of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals before moving in 1998 to Washington DC with her law school sweetheart and soon-to-be husband to become a communications law associate at Wilmer, Culter, and Pickering. While telecoms law may be arcane and highly technical, Julie was taken by the field because of the essential importance of communications technology to improving human life. Drawn to public service, in 2001 she began a 14-year career at the Federal Communications Commission, rising through the ranks to key positions of leadership in the agency, finishing her tenure as Chief of the Wireline Competition Bureau. As Chief, she oversaw a staff of more than 150 professionals, mentored countless young attorneys, and sheparded the public’s business before the Commission with aplomb, toughness, integrity, and compassion, winning praise for her management skill and can do attitude. In 2015, Julie joined the law firm of HWG LLP as a partner, where she represented her clients to the highest legal standards and, crucially for her, helped them in their important work, including to increase access to broadband in rural America and to further technologies for the hard of hearing. A great career by any standard; but what made Julie’s path truly extraordinary was that she achieved so much for so long while contending with the brutal effects of treatment from a rare sinus cancer she miraculously survived after a horrific year of radiation and chemotherapy in 2007. Brilliant doctors at Georgetown University Hospital saved her life – the life of the mother of two young children – for the eternal blessings of Julie and her family. In the decades- long aftermath, Julie did not dwell on her cancer, or the often debilitating struggles caused by the cancer treatment, but persevered through each setback to carry on and thrive as a lawyer, wife, mother, musician (turning to piano), and chef extraordinaire, until there was nothing more she could do. Julie was a warm, caring, person who loved her family and worked to make the world better. A paragon of strength, beauty, brilliance, poise, grace, and kindness, she is forever loved by her surviving husband, their two children, her mother, and five younger siblings. May she rest in peace. Contributions in Julie’s memory may be made to the FCBA Foundation Julie Veach Internship Fund at the link here https://members.fcba.org/donations/