Description of Practice

We represent municipalities nationwide on cable and telecommunications matters such as wireless projects, cell tower leases and zoning, and cable franchise renewals and transfers. We provide our clients with the advantages of:

• Extensive experience in achieving good results for clients.
• Highly-qualified, experienced attorneys (see biographies below).
• "Who you see is who you get"—Our cable and telecom work is generally performed by lawyers with years of experience in such matters, not delegated to others.
• The resources of a full-service law firm—We can immediately draw on the knowledge of lawyers specializing in litigation, municipal law, copyright, bankruptcy or corporate law as needed to help our clients.
• Municipal experience—We have been municipal attorney for cities and townships for decades and provide specialized legal services to many municipalities. As a result, we are knowledgeable about municipalities, how they work, and their cost constraints.
• A stable law firm with low turnover—Our firm is over 100 years old, and our cable and telecom lawyers have all spent their entire legal careers with the firm. This gives our clients assurance that the lawyers who work with them on a project will be present all the way through, without the disruption of key personnel leaving.
• See our qualifications (PDF, 190 KB) for more specifics.
  

Find out more about the types of projects we work on.

Clients

Our cable and telecommunications clients are from across the country and range from large cities—such as Detroit or Fort Worth—to small municipalities with only 1,000 people.

A sampling of some the municipalities and municipal groups we have represented include the following municipalities and municipal groups:

Municipalities

Municipal Groups

We represented many of these groups before the 6th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals in obtaining the most important court decision to date for municipalities on cable franchise renewals. It held that a city's decision about what should be in a cable franchise to meet the city's future cable related needs must stand if there is any evidence in the record to support it. Union CATV v City of Sturgis, Kentucky, 107 F3d 434 (6th Cir. 1997). This case has helped many municipalities achieve their goals in cable franchise renewals.

Personnel

A law firm is only as good as its people. Our attorneys who principally work on cable and telecommunications matters are highly qualified and experienced, as follows:

John Pestle, who is co-chairman of the firm's Cable and Telecommunications Group and is a past chair of both the Municipal Lawyers Section of the State Bar of Michigan and the Legal Section of the American Public Power Association. He works almost exclusively on cable franchise related matters and has represented municipalities on cable and utility matters for twenty years. He received the "Member of the Year" award from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors in 1996 for his work assisting municipalities on the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 and is a graduate of Harvard College, Yale Graduate School, and the University of Michigan Law School.

Timothy J. Lundgren, who is an associate with the law firm who also works extensively on cable and telecommunications matters. He has a B.A. from Hope College, an M.A. from the University of Colorado, a Ph.D. from Ohio State University, and received his J.D. from the University of Michigan.