Areas of Practice
Cable Television; Communications; Media; Telecommunications; Digital Rights Management; Privacy/Security; Information Technology
Representative Experience
Specializing in cable television and telecommunications law and policy, since 1978 working with NCTA, CableLabs, major cable companies and state cable associations on the legal, regulatory and strategic issues that have emerged as the industry has developed.
Negotiations between the cable industry and the consumer electronics and IT industries, leading to the “plug-and-play” and licensing agreements with the consumer electronics industry and the agreement with Microsoft to deliver cable services securely to PCs. Now working on the arrangements for “bi-directional” “plug-and-play” televisions and next-generation downloadable security.
Cable regulation, including rates, copyright and signal carriage, franchising, the 1984 and 1992 Cable Acts, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, state telecommunications legislation, pole attachments and privacy.
Facilitated the economical deployment of coax and then fiber by successfully resisting pole attachment overcharges and abuses through key cases at the FCC, in the U.S. Courts of Appeal and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Obtained the first FCC and court rulings allowing cable television operators to deliver telecommunications without losing their favorable status as “cable.”
Along with the Florida Cable Telecommunications Association team, negotiated and wrote the first state “level playing field” franchise law. Part of the NCTA legal team to steer the industry through re-regulation under the 1992 Cable Act.
Frequently appears as an expert witness before State Public Service Commissions, state legislatures, and in court on a variety of cable telecommunications matters, such as rates, overbuilds, poles, and forced access.
First practicing lawyer to receive the Vanguard Award, the most prestigious award presented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Prior Experience
Partner, Cole, Raywid & Braverman LLP,
1984-2006
Attorney, Hogan & Hartson, 1978-1984
Publications and Presentations
Lectured and published extensively on cable television and communications law
Faculty member, Practising Law Institute’s annual course on cable television and communications law, 1984-present
Frequent speaker, lecturer, and panelist for university, law school and communications industry programs
Memberships and Activities
District of Columbia Bar
American Bar Association
Cable Pioneer
Federal Communications Bar Association
Southern Cable Telecommunications Association’s Tower Club
U.S. Court of Appeals for District of Columbia Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for Eleventh Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for First Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for Fourth Circuit; U.S. Court of Appeals for Tenth Circuit
U.S. Supreme Court
Board of Advisors, Tahirih Justice Center
Chairman, Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Alexandria, Virginia
Member, Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington
Secretary, City of Alexandria Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Planning Committee
Education
J.D., Stanford University, 1978
A.B. in American Studies, with distinction, Cornell University, 1975
