After graduating from Georgetown Law, John began practicing law with Jenner & Block in Washington, D.C., litigating telecommunications antitrust issues before United States District Judge Harold H. Greene in the continuing proceedings arising from the breakup of the AT&T Bell System. After several years, he joined the boutique technology firm of Blumenfeld & Cohen, lead by DOJ trial attorneys from the Bell System litigation, and he subsequently moved to California to help staff their San Francisco office.
By the mid-90s, it was clear Congress was getting close to rewriting the Communications Act of 1934, and the rules of the telecommunications industry would change, so John took that opportunity to pursue his passion of trying cases. As part of his pro bono work with Jenner & Block, he already had won a couple major trials - a murder trial in D.C. Superior Court and a death penalty habeas corpus proceeding before the United States District Court of the Western District of Virginia. So he took a couple years away from corporate practice to be a trial lawyer. He handled numerous criminal and civil matters, including winning a multi-day jury trial regarding the dissolution of a leading San Francisco acting studio. After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 became law, John began representing Pacific Bell, negotiating and litigating interconnection agreement disputes arising under that law. After SBC acquired Pacific Telesis, John joined the SBC legal department, first as part of its federal telecommunications policy team, doing Federal Communications proceedings. After that, in Washington, DC, he joined the team doing the "Section 271" complex litigation matters, in which the SBC incumbent Local Exchange Carriers received authorization to provide long distance services after securing approval through a combination of state and federal regulatory proceedings. After SBC's 271 battles were mostly won, John returned to the San Francisco Bay Area to become as General Counsel of SBC Long Distance. In 2006, after SBC acquired AT&T and John helped transition SBC Long Distance's business into the existing AT&T operations, John began representing AT&T's network organization, which at that time was entering the video business, which he did for over 15 years. As a lawyer for a business unit of AT&T, John was primarily responsible for identifying and solving legal issues arising from the company's business and employing the necessary in-house or outside counsel to solving those problems. Over the years, he served various roles for AT&T's network organization - from handling national issues, such as developing and overseeing AT&T's national small cell strategy, to working on franchise and CEQA issues associated with the deployment of video in California, to managing AT&T's legal team handling wireless issues in the Western region of the United States. John retired at the end of 2021 to start di Bene Tech Law. Education Georgetown University Law Center * 1998 Juris Doctor cum laude * Executive Editor, Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics * Coach & Member, Georgetown National Moot Court Team * Winner, 1986 Beaudry Cup National Institute of Trial Advocacy * 1992 National Session Graduate (Boulder Colorado) Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation * 2019 Graduate, "Negotiation and Leadership" Harvard Law School, Program on Negotiation * Fall 2022, "Mediation and Conflict Management" Memberships And Admittances * State Bar of California * District of Columbia Bar Association * United States Supreme Court * United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit * United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit * United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit * United States District Court for the Northern District of California |