Richard Rubin, Of Counsel

Rick Rubin is of counsel in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office . He focuses on the regulatory and transactional aspects of the domestic, international, and foreign communications marketplaces. He provides legal representation and strategic guidance to service and capacity providers, lenders, investors, users, equipment vendors, infrastructure construction service providers, and government regulators.

During his more than 30 years of experience, Mr. Rubin has gained significant institutional and current knowledge of the broad range of federal and state regulation of the communications industries. He has also developed considerable insight into regulatory, transactional, and policy matters affecting entry, operation, and exit of communications service providers. He counsels clients on issues that include a wide variety of technologies and operating systems, including fixed and mobile wireless, landline, fiber, submarine cable, satellite, and the Internet. Mr. Rubin holds the Martindale Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating.

Mr. Rubin regularly counsels clients on licensing, compliance, and enforcement issues related to the regulated communications environment in which they operate. He frequently represents clients before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), executive branch agencies (including the Department of the Treasury, Department of State, Department of Commerce, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of Justice), and state public utility commissions. His practice includes the representation of foreign carriers on their U.S. operations, including compliance with foreign ownership laws and the negotiation of network security agreements. Mr. Rubin has significant experience with wireless regulatory matters before the FCC and has in depth institutional knowledge regarding the evolution of wireless services, regulatory classifications, and the different licensing schemes used by the FCC throughout the years. His representation of clients on regulatory matters includes both rulemaking and adversarial matters.

On the transactional side, Mr. Rubin negotiates and drafts complex commercial agreements for the purchase or sale of FCC licenses, communications equipment and networks, construction of networks, operating arrangements for networks, and the provision of communications services on wholesale and retail bases. He conducts specialized due diligence, and is frequently involved in other aspects of large scale transactions involving communications facilities, networks, and licenses. Mr. Rubin also negotiates a wide variety of communications service and financing agreements, as well as inter-carrier agreements related to such matters as interconnection, collocation, facilities-sharing, interference control, and roaming, among others. His practice often involves a wide variety of network architectures, including switching, routing, transport, access, and customer-premises equipment, as well as end-user devices and billing and operations systems.

A sampling of his recent work includes:

• Advising a U.S. territory government-owned subsidiary in connection with the use of federal broadband funds and negotiating fiber capacity, collocation, and other agreements with international telecommunications companies for the establishment of a high-speed broadband network.
• Representation of school districts in their appeals of Universal Service Administrative Company rulings that denied and sought to recover funding for telecommunications equipment and services under the federal Schools and Libraries Division program of the Universal Service Fund.
• Representation of a foreign subsidiary of a large foreign global telecommunications company in the structuring and implementing of the U.S. component of a high-speed satellite-based Internet service throughout Latin America.
• Advising and representing a domestic subsidiary of a large foreign global telecommunications company in the FCC and state licensing required for the delivery of resale wireless and fiber-based telecommunications services.
• Counseling a large lending institution and performing regulatory due diligence in connection with the financing of domestic broadcast facilities.
• Advising and developing a regulatory and legislative strategy for a facilities-bases wireless carrier advocating the continued participation in low income USF programs within the Hawaiian Home Lands.
• Assisting a foreign subsidiary of a large global foreign telecommunications company in the design and implementation of a prepaid wireless product to be sold in the United States for delivery and use in Latin American markets.
• Assisting a foreign subsidiary of a large global foreign telecommunications company in the preparation of responses to global telecommunications requests for proposals from large equipment and network vendors, including issues related to the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
• Counseling a large domestic commodities future company in connection with the negotiation of a high-speed broadband facility for the transmission and delivery of “real time” transaction data to/from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
• Assisting a subsidiary of a large foreign global telecommunications company in structuring and implementing a submarine telecommunications network connecting the United States with numerous points in the Caribbean and Latin America, including the drafting of model agreements for capacity leases and indefeasible rights of use.
• Representation of various wireless telecommunications carriers with respect to applicant structure, licensing, design, construction, and operation of their networks, as well as the purchase and sale of licenses, networks, and facilities.

Education