Firm Overview

Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP is one of the nation’s leading communications law firms. The firm assists clients in all sectors of the communications field on a wide range of matters. The firm provides counsel on legal, regulatory and policy issues, advocates in enforcement and litigation proceedings and handles corporate and transactional work. Firm practice areas include wireless and wireline communications, broadcast, cable and other media, new technologies and IP-based services, tower siting, and international and satellite communications. If a legal or regulatory matter affects communications services, Wilkinson Barker has the experience to handle the issue.

With one of the largest communications practices in the country, the firm takes advantage of its attorneys’ significant experience in government service, in private practice, and as in-house counsel for communications companies. Other Partners in the firm have held senior positions at the FCC, including serving as Chief of Staff to the Chairman, Legal Advisors to several Commissioners, Deputy General Counsel, and the first Chief of the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.  Wilkinson Barker attorneys also have been responsible for a number of specific areas of policy at the Commission having served as Division Chiefs in charge of telecommunications network services, commercial wireless, and public safety and private wireless matters, as well as having served as an advisor in the Media Bureau and as one of the developers of the FCC’s spectrum auction policies. Others at the firm bring an insider’s knowledge to serving our clients’ business needs, gained while working as telecommunications company executives. Members of the firm also serve on government, educational, and corporate advisory panels and boards, act as expert witnesses, and are adjunct legal professors and lecturers. They hold leadership positions in industry and bar associations, and regularly speak and publish articles on communications issues.

Wilkinson Barker’s clients range from the largest communications companies in the world to small start-ups. They include mobile and fixed wireless network operators, local exchange and interexchange companies, broadcasters, cable television operators, Internet technology and networking companies, satellite and international operators, information service providers, equipment manufacturers and retailers, infrastructure owners, and trade associations. The majority of the firm’s work is in proceedings at the FCC and before the federal courts. Wilkinson Barker also represents clients before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Federal Trade Commission, Executive Branch agencies, state agencies, the Congress, the International Telecommunication Union, Rural Utilities Service, among others.

Communications technology, law, policy, and regulation are in flux, posing new challenges and new opportunities. Traditional legal and policy distinctions, such as wireline vs. wireless, telecommunications vs. information services, and telephone vs. media services are being transformed as services converge and overlap. Against this shifting legal and regulatory framework, Wilkinson Barker works proactively with its clients to assure that their interests are protected and advanced.

Wilkinson Barker provides advice and representation specifically tailored to address clients’ legal, regulatory, and business strategies. To this end, the firm combines the services, capabilities, standards, and expertise of a large communications practice with the value, flexibility, and client-oriented personal style that only a smaller firm can deliver -- an approach to legal representation that has proven highly effective and efficient for our clients over the past 30 years.