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ACADEMIC CURRICULUM

Our faculty experts comprise practitioners who are employed at the forefront of the evolving communications industry and provide our students with the education and experiential practice to embark in a career in communications law. To earn a certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies, students must complete seven course requirements, six mandatory and one elective, and three semesters of legal externship. Currently, the mandatory courses are as follows:


Electronic Mass Media Policy and Regulation examines federal electronic mass media policy and regulation as formulated, implemented and interpreted by Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the courts.

FCC Practice and Procedures presents a detailed examination of the way lawyers practice law before the Federal Communications Commission.

First Amendment Problems of the Media examines the relationship between the First Amendment and the media with particular emphasis on defamation, invasion of privacy and censorship.

Legal Externship: Becoming a Communications Lawyer is the classroom component of the legal externship program.

Problems in Telecommunications Law and Policy is a policy seminar examining a series of domestic and international issues related to common carrier, spectrum allocation, media definition, broadcasting and technology planning.

Telecommunications Regulation covers the historical and contemporary treatment of telecommunications, including the growth and composition of the information-processing and telephone industries and their increasing interdependence.

*Detailed course descriptions and further curriculum information appear in the Announcement book.


PRACTICAL TRAINING THROUGH LEGAL EXTERNSHIPS

Students in the Institute benefit tremendously from Catholic University's location in Washington, D.C. As the center of government and law, Washington, D.C. is home to the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and other agencies involved in communications law policy regulation and enforcements, congressional subcommittees on telecommunications, and the United States Supreme Court, where all major First Amendment cases have been argued. Institute students can choose from numerous governmental offices, many of the major trade associations representing all segments of the communications industry, and some of the largest and most respected communications law practices in the country.

CLI graduates are practicing in a diverse range of communications law such as: mergers & acquisitions of Fortune 500 media, communications and technology companies; anti-trust and unfair trade practice issues before state and federal agencies; state, federal and international regulation of the Internet; compliance with global privacy and data security laws and regulations; intellectual property and regulatory issues related to new technology and consumer devices; First Amendment laws and policies related to broadcast, cable and satellite program content and political advertising; and international trade policies and transactions.

The following is a partial list of organizations where students have served in externships:

Members of the Institute classes gain practical knowledge as externs at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the nexus of all communication law. The FCC affords invaluable learning experience to dozens of Institute students every year. Not coincidentally, the FCC has grown to rely on the Institute for Communications Law Studies for talented legal externs each semester to work in each of its bureaus on themost pressing and current issues in communications law.



FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Department of Agriculture, Rural Utility Services

Department of Justice

Department of State

Executive Office of the President of the United States, Office of Science and Technology Policy

Federal Communications Commission

Office of the Chairman

Offices of Commissioners

Office of the General Counsel

Enforcement, Media, Wireless and Wireline
Competition Bureaus

National Telecommunication and Information Administration

U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet

U.S. Small Business Administration

ASSOCIATIONS AND PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS

CTIA - The Wireless Association

National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors

National Association of Broadcasters

National Cable Telecommunications Association

National Emergency Number Association

National Public Radio
National Telephone Cooperatives Association
Radio Television News Directors Association
Recording Industry Association of America

Student Press Law Center
Telecommunications Industry Association

United States Telecommunications Association

BUSINESSES

America Online

Cable & Wireless, Inc.

Clearwire Corporation

Comcast

Echostar Satellite LLC

Fox Television Stations, Inc

Mobile Satellite Ventures

NBC

National Geographic Channel

Nokia

Travel Channel

Windstream Communications


LAW FIRMS

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Arnold and Porter

Kelley Drye & Warren LLP

Lampert, O'Connor, Johnston P.C.

Latham & Watkins
Senter Lerman PLLC
Mintz Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, LLP
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Wiley Rein, LLP
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP