James R. Hobson

Of Counsel

James R. Hobson is of counsel in Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Municipal Law practice group in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to joining the firm in 2011, he was an attorney with Miller & Van Eaton, a nationally-recognized telecommunications law firm.

Mr. Hobson has over 40 years of experience in cable television, wire and wireless communications as a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) official, corporation lawyer and private legal practitioner. At the FCC from 1972-78, his posts included special assistant to the chairman (1974) and chief, cable television bureau, 1976-78. As Washington counsel for GTE, 1978-91, Mr. Hobson's assignments included the early stages of the video dial-tone docket and the grant to GTE California of the first telco-cable urban cross-ownership waiver in Cerritos. Congress changed the law in 1996 to allow telco entry into cable television.

As a private practice attorney, Mr. Hobson has worked on video, wire and wireless communications matters for a number of clients. Within the field of wireless communications, he has developed a specialty in public safety communications, including 9-1-1 emergency calling and rebanding of the 800 MHz spectrum. Mr. Hobson also is consulted regularly by local governments and citizens' groups on the siting of wireless communications facilities under zoning codes and ordinances. He was a member of the statutory panel of arbitrators which in 1992 recommended changes in the 1993-94 fees paid for satellite carrier delivery of super-station and network TV signals to backyard dish receivers.

Mr. Hobson holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Cornell and Georgetown Universities, and his law degree is from the University of San Francisco. He is admitted to practice in California as well as the District of Columbia. Besides having served on the American Arbitration Association's National Panel, he is a trained mediator.

Mr. Hobson is the co-author of "Preemption of Local Regulation of Radio Antennas," Federal Communications Law Journal, Volume 46, No. 3 (1994), and the co-editor of The Communications Act: A Legislative History of the Major Amendments, 1934-1996 (Pike & Fischer, 1999). His article, "Wireless Facility Siting Under the Communications Act," appeared in the March-April 2003 issue of Municipal Lawyer, and an update, with Matthew Schettenhelm, in the November-December 2008 issue. Mr. Hobson has spoken at numerous municipal association conventions and seminars as well as private educational forums.

Education

• University of San Francisco School of Law, J.D. (1971)
• Georgetown University, M.A., Government (1963)
• Cornell University, B.A. (1959)

Bar Admissions

• California (1972)
• District of Columbia (1973)

Court Admissions

• United States Supreme Court
• USCA 2, 5, 9, 10
• D.C. Circuit

Awards

• Washington, D.C. Top Rated Lawyer in Communications Law, American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell (2013)

James R. Hobson

Of Counsel

Memberships

• American Bar Association
• Federal Communications Bar Association
• Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill, Alexandria

Community Involvement

• Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University (Advisory Board, 1989-2009)
• Goodwin House Retirement Community (Board of Directors, 1996-2001)
• City of Alexandria Traffic Board (1980-82)