Corporate, Commercial & Financial Transactions
- Provide strategic counseling, negotiation, drafting, documentation and due diligence to clients in a range of telecommunications transactions including service provisioning, financing arrangements, asset assignments and securitizations.
- Assist the nation’s largest wireless service provider and other wireless infrastructure companies, including the largest privately held infrastructure companies in the country, in permitting and siting of wireless telecommunication facilities, negotiating real estate and other land use agreements with private property owners and municipalities for use of property and public rights of way and addressing governmental or community considerations related to the siting of wireless infrastructure.
- Counsel telecommunications carriers and infrastructure companies in formulating national, regional, state, and local strategies for their network development projects, from site acquisition, leasing, permitting, to post on-air management.
- Advise service providers, investors, lenders, and other clients on traditional telecommunications as well as emerging technologies issues.
- Negotiate utility pole attachment agreements, right-of-way access agreements, IRU agreements, joint trench agreements, dark fiber leases, cable franchise agreements, wireless tower leases, and transition services agreements related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.
- Prepare and negotiate commercial agreements for communications, broadband, and cable companies, and assisting clients in obtaining federal, state, and local regulatory approvals for transactions.
- Assist clients with environmental permitting necessary to close complex real estate transactions.
- Mergers, acquisitions, and other business combinations in connection with the sale and acquisition of telecommunications infrastructure assets and businesses.
- Advise on strategic joint ventures and other transactions.
- Strategic advice in entity formation and structure, corporate reorganizations, and management of the entire spectrum of legal issues, from real estate, taxation, and human resources matters to commercial contracts and creditors’ rights.
Legislation
- Develop and execute legislative strategies at the federal, state and local level on issues ranging from regulation to taxation.
- Coordinate and collaborate with key industry players on federal, state and local legislation.
- Draft proposed legislation on issues affecting the industry or specific carriers.
- Lobby in favor of or against proposed legislation affecting the industry or specific carriers.
- Formulate and execute legislative strategies to resolve regulatory, tax and business issues facing the telecommunications industry, including drafting of legislation, lobbying, and testifying.
- Provide strategic advice on legislation.
- Work with industry coalitions to promote the industry’s legislative priorities.
Litigation and Conflict Resolution
- Represent communications companies in a broad range of matters including regulatory, litigation, and transactional, with an emphasis in utilizing mediation, arbitration and other forms of alternative dispute resolution where appropriate.
- Serve as lead counsel for a national telecommunications company in over 100 state and local tax lawsuits involving whether monopoly-era land line telephone tax ordinances can constitutionally be expanded to tax wireless telecommunications services. The cases include a class action and numerous tax refund lawsuits.
- Represent clients in proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission and state public utility commissions.
- Extensive appellate and trial litigation experience in state and federal forums.
- Successfully represent wireless service providers and other wireless infrastructure companies in numerous appeals of state and local siting approvals in state and federal courts, including issues under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
- Experienced in contested land use and zoning matters and landowner disputes.
- Recent representation includes an arbitration proceeding between a major long distance carrier and a telemarketing firm, resulting in a $30.45 million award in favor of the firm’s client, and the mediation of several disputes regarding toll clearinghouse agreements.
Regulation
- In addition to our day-to-day counseling of clients on issues of regulatory compliance, we represent clients before federal, state, and local regulators in a variety of matters.
- Counsel and advise clients on a variety of regulatory issues before the Federal Communications Commission, other federal agencies, and state regulatory bodies.
- Participate in Federal Communications Commission or state utility commission dockets dealing with issues of universal service, Section 271 entry (RBOC long distance service), number portability, calling plans, internet access and consumer complaints such as slamming or substandard service.
- Arbitrate of interconnection agreements and applications for approval of negotiated interconnection and resale agreements before state regulatory commissions.
- Advocate certificate of service applications by interexchange or competitive local exchange companies (IXC’s or CLEC’s) to state commissions.
- Facilitate applications for the approval of competitive tariff filings for local, interexchange or other services.
- Assist in developing and implementing regulatory compliance strategies.