Andrew Lipman has spent more than 30 years developing the firm’s Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group into one of the largest practices of its kind in the nation. He practices in virtually every aspect of communications law and related fields, including regulatory, transactional, litigation, legislative and land use. The TMT Group is international in scope, representing clients in the U.S., Central and South America, Europe, Asia and other parts of the world.

Andy represents clients in both the private and public sectors, including those in the areas of local, long distance and international telephone common carriage; Internet services and technologies; conventional and emerging wireless services; satellite services; broadcasting; competitive video services; telecommunications equipment manufacturing; and other high-technology applications. In addition, Andy has managed privatizations of telecommunications carriers in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Andy has been involved in nearly every new legal and regulatory policy at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), at state public service commissions, in Congress and before courts to open the U.S. local telephone market to competition. He also helped shape crucial provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and has used similar approaches to promote the opening of foreign markets. He also obtained one of the first competitive local service and interconnection agreements in continental Europe and the first competitive fiber network application in Japan. Andy’s expansive practice includes the strategic analysis of companies’ telecom user agreements, including renegotiating existing agreements, and when necessary, negotiating new, more favorable telecom user agreements.

For nearly a decade, while maintaining his partnership at the firm, Andy also served as senior vice president, legal and regulatory affairs, for MFS Communications, the nation’s largest competitive local services provider. One of the founders of MFS, Andy helped guide the company from startup to its eventual sale for $14.4 billion to WorldCom.

A frequent author and speaker on telecommunications related topics, Andy has published more than 170 articles and is the author of five books, including two Dow Jones books on telecommunications. He has appeared as a commentator on National Public Radio, C-SPAN, Bloomberg News Network and ABC News. In addition, he has served on the editorial advisory boards of Phillips Publishing Company, Internet Law and Regulation, Telecommunications Alert, Telecommunications Reports, Telecommunications Regulatory Monitor and The Satellite Compendium. Andy also served as general counsel to the International Teleconferencing Association and as legislative/regulatory counsel to the International Satellite Users Association. He sits on the board of directors of five public companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchange.

Andy is co-founder and the first chairman of the Association of Local Telecommunication Services (ALTS), the national trade association for competitive telecommunications carriers.

Prior to entering private practice, Andy participated in the legal honors program at the U.S. Department of Transportation and served in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation. He also served as an extern law clerk to Justice Raymond Sullivan of the California Supreme Court.