Communications & Media

Our firm's media, technology, and telecommunications practice is national in scope and includes representation of:

• Broadcast companies - radio and television
• Cable television companies
• Newspapers
• Wire services
• Magazines
• Entertainment companies
• Financial institutions
• Internet companies
• Networks
• New technology companies
• Publishing companies
• Software companies
• Telephone companies
• Trade associations

Our attorneys practice before numerous federal, state, and local courts and regulatory agencies and routinely participate in rulemaking proceedings, administrative hearings, licensing proceedings, and compliance activities on behalf of media, telecommunications, and technology companies and their trade associations. In addition to daily involvement in various federal and state regulatory agency proceedings, our attorneys regularly litigate issues in federal and state courts.

Copyright, trademark, and intellectual property law constitute an integral part of our media and technology practice. We recently secured one of the largest awards for attorney fees ever in a copyright infringement case.

Our government relations attorneys are involved on a daily basis in representing clients before federal and state legislative and executive branches of government.

Transactional representation is a key component of the practice. The firm has been involved in some of the nation's largest television station acquisitions. We advise clients in the merger, acquisition and sale of media and technology companies, including advice on securities laws, formation of the business entity, negotiation of asset purchase and stock purchase agreements, securing requisite state and federal regulatory approvals, negotiating and drafting financing and security documents, and closing the transaction. We serve as counsel in some of the nation's largest media company mergers and acquisitions. We also represent media companies in franchise negotiations and in their negotiations with networks, financial companies, and other entities.

Further, our attorneys regularly advise media and technology clients on issues such as:

• Advertising and trade regulations
• Cable franchise agreements
• Cable, satellite, web-streaming, and satellite carriage of television signals
• Copyright and intellectual property
• Digital television
• Equal employment opportunity
• Federal and state political broadcasting rules
• Indecency standards and regulations
• Libel and slander
• Lottery and contest regulations
• Low-power FM radio
• Media ownership
• Network affiliation agreements
• Non-competition agreements, antitrust, and unfair trade practices
• OSHA and FCC radiation regulations
• Privacy, wiretapping, freedom of information issues
• Re-transmission agreements
• Siting of broadcast towers
• Syndicated program exclusivity
• Telemarketing, open meetings and public records laws
• Television/radio regulation and deregulation
• Tower leasing agreements
• Trade secret agreements
• Trademarks and service marks
• Unfair competition

We represent dozens of public and privately held broadcast, cable television, newspaper and publishing, telephone, and technology companies and organizations. Our clients have included some of the nation's most prominent media and technology companies. A list of our firm's media clients is available upon request.