Jonathan V. Cohen, Partner

Standard Bio  |  Jonathan V. Cohen helps guide companies in the telecommunications, broadband and media sectors, as well as firms that finance these enterprises, as they evaluate and cultivate business opportunities in a constantly shifting legal, regulatory and political landscape. With nearly thirty years of experience in telecommunications and mass media policy and transactional matters, he regularly is asked by clients to appear on their behalf before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other executive branch agencies whose work touches their interests. Mr. Cohen is a recognized expert in spectrum transactions, and particularly in the rules governing spectrum auctions. He holds the Martindale Hubbell AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rating, and his work on corporate and commercial transactions has been singled out by clients for delivering outstanding service as one of 86 attorneys nationwide named to the 2008 BTI Transactions All-Star Team.

Mr. Cohen is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and client seminars, and periodically writes columns for telecom publications. At the request of the U.S. Department of State, he served as a Private Sector Advisor to the U.S. delegation at the 2002 World Telecommunications Development Conference in Istanbul, Turkey. His recent work has included:

• Assisting Atlantic Tele-Network, Inc. in successfully securing approval of its $200 million acquisition of wireless facilities and customers in 26 markets in six states from Verizon Wireless in 2010;
• Representing Centennial Communications Corp. in its $944 million merger with AT&T Inc. in 2009;
• On behalf of Cingular Wireless, devising and implementing structures to accomplish the unwind of an infrastructure-sharing arrangement with T-Mobile USA, a process that took four years to compete and involved dozens of complex agreements;
• Assisting Cingular Wireless in a broad range of transactions, including its merger with AT&T Wireless Services, a $1.4 billion spectrum acquisition from NextWave Telecom Inc.; and the acquisition of controlling interests in several affiliates that had acquired licenses as “designated entities” under the FCC’s rules; and
• Formulating some of the first spectrum lease agreements executed under a new policy adopted by the FCC in 2003. Many elements of the spectrum leases drafted by Mr. Cohen have become the standard in the industry.

Mr. Cohen joined Wilkinson Barker in July 1998 after five and a half years in senior positions at the Federal Communications Commission and The White House. He served as Assistant Counsel to President Clinton in the Office of Presidential Personnel, where he was responsible for vetting candidates for nomination to sub-Cabinet level positions at the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Commerce.  At the FCC, Mr. Cohen held several senior staff positions, advising two FCC Chairmen and working in the Office of Plans and Policy, Mass Media Bureau and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. During his FCC tenure, Mr. Cohen co-authored the rules for FCC spectrum auctions and directed the FCC’s first broadband PCS auction, which at $7.7 billion earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest auction to date. For his work in developing the FCC spectrum auction program, Mr. Cohen received (along with others) the “Hammer Award” for Reinventing Government from Vice President Al Gore’s National Performance Review. His leadership of the PCS auction attracted the attention of The American Lawyer magazine, which named Mr. Cohen “Dealmaker of the Month” in May 1995. Mr. Cohen’s FCC tenure also included work in formulating competition policy for new and innovative spectrum uses, establishing new digital television and political programming policies, and spearheading the FCC’s effort to ensure that wireline telecommunications carriers adequately addressed the Year 2000 computer problem. He also served as counsel to the President’s Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.

Before his government service, Mr. Cohen practiced communications law in Washington, D.C. He represented one of the first “non-wireline” cellular telephone service providers in FCC hearings to obtain licenses and in a wide variety of legal matters pertaining to the construction of its network. His clients also included cable television system operators and broadcasters, whom he assisted in rule making proceedings at the FCC and in corporate and commercial transactions. Before entering law school, he had a brief career as a radio news reporter in a major media market.

Mr. Cohen is active in local and national politics. In 2002, he took a leave of absence from the firm to help direct the Congressional campaign of then-State Senator Chris Van Hollen, who defeated an eight-term incumbent in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District and is now Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee after serving two terms as Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Mr. Cohen also helped formulate policies for President Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign as a member of the campaign’s Tech, Media and Telecom Policy Group.

Mr. Cohen is a long-standing and active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association and the Computer and Telecommunications Law Section of the D.C. Bar. He also co-chaired the FCBA’s Committee on Global Telecommunications Development for three years.