Sher & Blackwell represents a
variety of competitive communications providers, including competitive local exchange
carriers, interexchange carriers, fixed 
wireless providers, and Internet service providers. Working on issues
before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission, we assist clients by lobbying
on their behalf, drafting legislation and Congressional testimony, filing comments and
making ex parte presentations before the FCC, providing strategic and business
advice, and assessing and implementing litigation options as appropriate to best meet the
needs of our clients.
A unique capability that Sher & Blackwell offers to its
clients in addition to traditional communications law practice skills is its in-depth
knowledge of legislative changes to the Communications Act and other key statutes that
directly affect many of the critical issues facing the communications industry today. Earl Comstock, a partner in the Communications
Practice and Legislative Practice groups, spent 10 years working in the United States
Senate as special counsel for telecommunications to the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation and as legislative director for Senator Ted Stevens, the
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations and a senior member of the Commerce
Committee. In those positions Mr. Comstock played a significant role in the negotiation
and drafting of every major piece of communications legislation enacted or considered by
Congress from 1992 to 1997, including the landmark Telecommunications Act of 1996.
A sample list of issues that Sher & Blackwell has
represented and advised clients on includes reciprocal compensation, peering of Internet
backbones, legality of Internet business models, cable open access, FTS and MAA federal
government contracts, designation of eligible telecommunications carriers, building
access, access to unbundled network elements, international satellite competition, and
voice over IP, to name a few.
Sher & Blackwell is currently representing
EarthLink, Inc., the nation's third largest Internet service provider,
in a court challenge to a Federal Communications Commission decision
that held that cable companies that provide broadband transmission
services to the general public along with Internet services are not
common carriers. Common carriers are required to sell transmission
on nondiscriminatory terms upon request to any qualified purchaser,
including ISPs. The case, which is captioned Brand
X Internet Services et al. v. FCC, was submitted to the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals for decision after oral argument on May 8,
2003. The brief and reply
brief filed by Sher & Blackwell on behalf of EarthLink are
available by clicking the links in this sentence. On October 6, 2003,
the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling that holds that the transmission
component of cable modem service is a common carrier telecommunications
service. Click here
for a copy of the decision.
In addition, the Communications Practice
Group filed a brief on behalf of EarthLink,
Inc. as amicus curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated
cases of National Cable
Television Association v. Gulf Power and Federal Communications Commission
v. Gulf Power on April 6, 2001.
Earl Comstock
and John Butler, another partner in the
Communications Practice group, authored the law review article Access Denied: The FCC’s Failure to Implement
Open Access to Cable As Required by the Communications Act, which was published
in volume 8 of Catholic University’s CommLaw Conspectus (Winter 2000) and is
reprinted with their permission on this website.
Telecommunications