Sean A. Stokes

Representative Matters: Developed strategies and negotiated dozens of agreements relating to infrastructure siting, acquisition, and leasing, including pole attachments, conduit leases, dark fiber leases and indefeasible rights of use (IRUs), and wireless facilities siting; Developed and helped implement legal, regulatory, and legislative strategies to remove barriers to broadband entry; Negotiated public-private broadband partnerships; Successfully assisted clients in obtaining federal broadband funding and complying with federal program grant obligations; Negotiated network operating agreement between private broadband provider and electric cooperatives; Negotiated and helped create a broadband consortium to seek federal and state broadband funding; Represented a major utility trade association before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and in the appeal of the FCC's Small Cell Wireless Order before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, City of Portland vs. United States, 969 F.3d 1020 (9th Cir. 2020); Assisted a mid-size capital city in successfully developing, negotiating, and implementing a complex, innovative wireless right-of-way siting ordinance that ultimately had the support of both the wireless industry and the civic association; Brought successful petitions to FCC on behalf of two public power utilities to preempt state laws that posed barriers to municipal broadband initiatives (FCC decision subsequently overturned for lack of preemptive authority); Assisted clients with implementing federal communications regulatory compliance requirements; including universal service, customer proprietary network information (CPNI), and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA); Won a large federal jury verdict for a small cable operator against national cable TV provider for violating Florida's deceptive and unfair trade practices laws; Negotiated cable television and wireline and wireless telecommunications franchises and other agreements affecting the public right-of-way; Assisted small new cable TV operators with acquiring access to television and cable programming