Channel Law Group, LLP is a boutique practice with a broad expertise in land use and real estate, telecommunications and media law, environmental law, litigation, mediation, utility regulation, franchising, rights-of-way, municipal law, business formation and contract law.  Our current focus is on providing legal representation with respect to land use and environmental issues for clients both large and small, including the dominant players in the telecom industry, real estate developers and local citizens' groups.

 

OUR APPROACH

 

 Channel Law Group is dedicated to serving our clients not only in the courtroom, but in the real world in which our clients face their challenges. We believe in helping our clients effectively and efficiently pursue their goals not only through the traditional legal landscape, but also, where appropriate, through concerted political action at the local, state and national level. All of our clients receive personal attention from senior, experienced attorneys throughout the course of the representation.

  

PRACTICE AREAS

 

Channel Law Group offers expertise in land use and real estate, telecommunications and media law, environmental law, litigation, utility regulation, franchising, rights-of-way, municipal law, intellectual property, business formation, contract law and workers’ compensation and personal injury.

 

OUR ATTORNEYS

 

With skills acquired at top-tier law schools and honed through industry and political experience, our attorneys are here to provide the service you need.

 

ENVIRONMENTAL

 

Our attorneys are experienced litigators who have successfully bought numerous legal actions under the California Environmental Quality Act ("CEQA"). Channel Law Group recently won a decision halting a street widening project in the City of Bakersfield because the City's Environmental Impact Report failed to comply with CEQA.

 

LAND USE AND ZONING

 

Our staff has extensive experience assisting clients navigating the municipal land use and zoning waters - whether it be for or against a project. In particular, Channel Law Group has represented a wide variety of communications providers and assisted at every step of deployment -  zoning opinions, use permit applications and zoning compliance, franchise negotiation, building permits, and reviews of title and environmental reports. Channel Law Group has successfully filed and processed to completion permit applications in many jurisdictions throughout California.

 

TELECOMMUNICATION

 

Our attorneys are nationally recognized experts in communications and media law. We have extensive experience assisting wireless carriers, tower companies, cable operators and telecommunications carriers with a variety of network deployment issues and offer land use, real estate, franchising, right-of-way, regulatory compliance and contract-related expertise, providing transactional, regulatory and litigation support in many of these areas. We also have assisted start-up programming ventures and have advised on a panoply of organizational, operational, financing and transactional issues, including production and rights acquisition, affiliation, and distribution.

 

LITIGATION

 

Channel Law Group’s attorneys have appeared in every federal court in California, including the Ninth Circuit, and in state courts in California and Colorado. Channel Law Group has extensive litigation experience both at the trial court level and at the appellate level. We have represented wireless carriers, DAS providers, tower companies and citizen groups in lawsuits against local governments in both federal and state court, including filing amicus briefs with the California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit in support of Sprint Telephony in its lawsuit against San Diego County. We offer litigation support for each of our practice areas.

 

BUSINESS FORMATION AND CONTRACT

 

Channel Law Group assists professional businesses and trade associations on formation and contract matters. As part of our transactional work, our attorneys have assisted companies with preparing and filing corporate and limited liability company partnership formation documents with state Secretaries of State, and filing trademark registrations. Additionally, we have extensive experience negotiating a variety of contracts including commercial real estate leases, site leases, right of way agreements, programming affiliate agreements, production, rights acquisition and distribution agreements, software and hardware licensing agreements, and website policies.

 

REGULATORY

 

The regulatory world can be complex and is different from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. We have represented communications companies before a number of state regulatory agencies, including the California Public Utility Commission and the Arizona Corporations Commission, and the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. In addition we have assisted our clients with all aspects of regulatory work across the country from applying for certification, to petitioning the regulatory bodies for approval of transactions, to preparing and filing tariffs, and filing and defending complaints.

 

CRIMINAL

 

Charles McLurkin, partner at Channel Law Group, is an experienced criminal defense and personal injury attorney.  Mr. McLurkin offers criminal law representation for clients as necessary.