Carl W. Northrop

Carl W. Northrop is the Founding Member of Telecommunications Law Professionals PLLC (“TLP”), a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, D.C. committed to assisting clients in meeting the substantial challenges they face in the rapidly changing wireless, wired, high-tech, and media industries. Much of his practice is devoted to the representation of mobile and fixed service providers of broadband and narrowband services delivered over terrestrial wireless systems, wireline networks, satellites and the internet.

Mr. Northrop handles diverse legal matters for communications companies, including general counseling on federal regulatory issues, regulatory policy advocacy at the Federal Communications Commission (the FCC) and on Capitol Hill, licensing work (including representation in FCC spectrum auctions), communications-related litigation before the FCC, federal courts, local courts and state public utility commissions, international telecommunications ventures, and a wide range of other communications-related transactions including mergers and acquisitions, equipment contracts, public and private debt and equity placements, intercarrier arrangements, interconnection agreements, agency and resale contracts, mobile virtual network operation (MVNO) arrangements, construction and management agreements, and communications-related trademark arrangements.

This broad-based practice also encompasses the representation of suppliers of goods and services to the telecommunications industry including financial institutions (banks, underwriters, private equity and venture capital firms), equipment manufacturers, billing and software suppliers, application providers, communications tower and site owners and engineering firms. In addition, Mr. Northrop has represented both service providers and purchasers in major contracts for communications services, and has acted both as an arbitrator and as an expert witness in various disputes arising out of communications contracts.

Mr. Northrop graduated with high distinction in 1972 from the University of Michigan from which he received a Bachelors of Business Administration degree. He received his Juris Doctor in 1976 from the Georgetown University Law Center where he served as an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal. While at Georgetown, Mr. Northrop was the recipient of both the Best Brief and Best Oral Advocate awards in the Beaudry Cup moot court competition.

As a member of the District of Columbia Bar, Mr. Northrop is admitted and qualified to practice before the D.C. Court of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States and the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. He is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association.

Mr. Northrop is a member of the Board of Governors of the Georgetown University Alumni Association, and a member emeritus of the Alumni Board of the Georgetown University Law Center. He also has an active pro bono practice devoted to child custody, adoption and guardianship cases in the family courts in DC and Maryland.

Recent publications include, “Net Neutrality – Past and Present” in Volume One of Broadband and Cable Industry Law 2013, Intellectual Property Course Handbook Series © 2013.