ACA Pushes for Clearer 'Outside Counsel' Definition in FCC Deal Reviews
American Cable Association's Ross Lieberman needs access to confidential deal information, and the FCC should clarify who qualifies as "outside counsel" to make that happen, ACA said in an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-149. ACA said clarification…
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should come before the agency issues a protective order in Charter Communications' buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, as the phrase "outside counsel" -- when used in other protective orders in recent reviews of multichannel video programming distributor transactions -- has been "incongruent with the common usage of the term in the legal and corporate world," ACA said. Meanwhile, parties in different deals before the FCC over the past four years have objected three separate times to Lieberman's status as outside counsel, meaning ACA "has had to expend its limited time and resources responding." Adding an addendum stipulating an in-house attorney employed by a noncommercial trade association representing commercial parties qualifies as "outside counsel" would leave the door open to objecting to Lieberman's access -- or access of other similar attorneys -- on other grounds, ACA said. Lieberman is ACA senior vice president-government affairs. The FCC has had on circulation a draft protective order on Charter/TWC/BHN (see 1508040060)