WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission is expected to appoint an industry lawyer who has represented Facebook, Uber and Equifax to lead the agency’s consumer protection bureau tasked with policing those companies.

The lawyer, Andrew M. Smith, would recuse himself from any potential investigations or enforcement involving dozens of companies he has worked for over the past two years while at Covington & Burling in Washington, including many banks, lenders, credit-reporting agencies and technology companies, according to two people familiar with his proposed appointment but were not authorized to speak publicly.

Those recusals would force Mr. Smith to step aside from his bureau’s most prominent investigations: the investigations into incidents at Facebook and Equifax that leaked the personal data of tens of millions of people. He also would not be involved in enforcing a F.T.C. settlement with Uber over a data breach.

Joseph J. Simons, the F.T.C.’s chairman, has put Mr. Smith’s appointment up for a vote, causing debate among the five commissioners, one person close to the F.T.C. said. Such appointments are typically perfunctory votes. Four of the commissioners, including Mr. Simons, were sworn in this month. Mr. Simons and the two other Republican commissioners are expected to approve Mr. Smith’s appointment, the person said.