Matthew Brill is Global Chair of the Communications Law Practice and a member of the Supreme Court & Appellate Practice. He represents communications companies in a broad range of matters including regulatory, litigation, and transactional.
Mr. Brill advises service providers, investors, lenders, and other clients on traditional telecommunications and media issues as well as emerging technologies issues. He regularly represents:
- Leading cable operators
- Local exchange carriers
- Wireless carriers
- Internet service providers
- Satellite carriers
- E-commerce companies
Mr. Brill represents clients in proceedings before:
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Federal and state courts
- State public utility commissions
The leading legal directories, including Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, Washingtonian, Super Lawyers, Who’s Who Legal: Communications, and The Best Lawyers in America, consistently recognize Mr. Brill as a leading communications lawyer on Latham & Watkins’ first-tier Washington D.C. communications team. He is recognized in The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame, which highlights individuals who have received “constant praise by their clients for continued excellence,” for his regulatory work in the telecoms and broadcast industry. In 2015 and 2017, he was recognized as a Telecommunications MVP by Law360. In 2016 and 2017, Mr. Brill was named to BTI Consulting Group’s Client Service All-Star List, which recognizes national leaders in superior client service identified directly by corporate counsel and executives. He was also named a Top Lawyer in Cablefax’s inaugural Top Lawyers Awards Program in 2017, and again in 2018 and 2019.
Prior to joining Latham, Mr. Brill served as the senior legal advisor to Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy at the FCC, where he worked with the FCC Chairman’s office, other commissioners, and agency staff. He was also the liaison to senior industry executives, trade associations, and state regulators, and worked closely with members of Congress and their staffs on a variety of legislative proposals. Mr. Brill’s work at the FCC included developing national policies governing:
- Broadband Internet access
- Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services
- Local telephone competition
- Universal service subsidies
- Intercarrier compensation arrangements
- Spectrum allocation
- The digital television transition
Before joining the FCC in 2001, Mr. Brill was in private practice, representing telecommunications carriers and other clients in FCC and court proceedings, including several in the US Supreme Court and Circuit Courts. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson in the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Mr. Brill is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA) and has chaired the FCBA’s Common Carrier Practice Committee.
Mr. Brill’s representative matters include:
- Serving as lead representative of the cable industry in FCC proceedings regarding net neutrality rules and in related preemption challenges to state net neutrality laws
- Representing various parties in TCPA litigation in appellate and trial courts (including several prominent victories defeating class certification and favorably construing key statutory definitions)
- Defending a leading cable operator in state attorney general investigations regarding allegedly deceptive broadband speed advertising and in related class action litigation
- Representing a large coalition of local exchange carriers in federal court litigation and FCC proceedings arising from disputes over intercarrier compensation rules applicable to intraMTA wireless traffic
- Served as lead regulatory counsel for Time Warner Cable in its merger with Charter Communications
- Successfully defended cable operators in several federal class actions alleging tying of premium cable services and cable set-top boxes
- Served as lead counsel for the cable industry in First Amendment challenges to program carriage rules and analog broadcast carriage requirements in federal courts of appeals
- Represented Time Warner Cable in its various acquisitions of cable systems and sale of wireless spectrum
- Represented private equity purchasers of Cequel Communications
- Served as lead counsel to an industry coalition seeking reform of FCC retransmission consent rules
- Secured key FCC rulings regarding the interconnection rights of wholesale telecommunications carriers serving retail VoIP providers