Ms. Rule began her communications law practice upon completion of her clerkship with the United States Department of Labor.  Ms. Rule’s clients have included municipal and commercial providers of communications services, municipal and publicly owned utilities, consumer advocacy groups, small business owners, real estate developers, commercial landlords, and software developers.  Ms. Rule’s diversified practice involves providing clients with communications and general transactional advice and assistance, as well as representing clients in a wide range of litigation-related matters.  Ms. Rule’s litigation experience includes representing clients before state and federal appellate courts, as well as in state and federal adjudicatory and rulemaking proceedings. 

• General Transactional Experience:  Ms. Rule provides assistance to a variety of small and mid-sized entities with regard to general commercial transactional matters, including the formation of corporations, partnerships and limited liability companies, the drafting of shareholder and other corporate governance documents, and the drafting and negotiation of asset acquisition agreements.  Ms. Rule also has experience representing both landlords and tenants in drafting in negotiating commercial lease agreements and associated documents.

• Communications Transactional Experience:  Ms. Rule has assisted a wide-variety of clients with regard to the drafting and negotiation of technology and license agreements, including pole attachment agreements, spectrum leasing agreements, communications tower leasing agreements, municipal cable franchises, retransmission consent agreements, program licensing agreements, and software license agreements. Ms. Rule also advises a variety of clients with regard to the creation and implementation of asset management policies and agreements.  In particular, Ms. Rule has worked with commercial landlords and communications providers in creating and negotiating communications access policies and agreements that allow communications providers access to residential and commercial properties in order to serve commercial and residential customers.  Similarly, Ms. Rule has advised municipally owned and publicly owned utilities with regard to their utility asset management practices and has negotiated asset management agreements with communications providers on behalf of municipal and publicly-owned utilities.  

• Regulatory Compliance:  Ms. Rule advises clients as to the evolving regulatory framework for developing technologies such as Voice over Internet Protocol, Broadband over Powerlines, and Wi-Fi broadband access.  Ms. Rule assists clients in creating and implementing workable communications-related policies and practices that comply with rapidly changing state and federal requirements.  Ms. Rule also drafts and prosecutes applications for certificates of public convenience and necessity to provide local exchange and intrastate, interexchange telecommunications services before state public utility commissions throughout the contiguous United States. 

• Litigation: Ms. Rule has experience representing communications providers, municipal and publicly owned utilities, and municipalities before federal and state appellate courts, and she co-authored an amicus brief in Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League before the United States Supreme Court.  Ms. Rule represents clients in regulatory adjudications and rulemaking proceedings before state public service commissions and the Federal Communications Commission.   Ms. Rule also defends and prosecutes general commercial contract disputes in state and federal court. 

Ms. Rule is a graduate with honors from Texas A&M University, and she earned her Juris Doctorate from Washington & Lee University School of Law.  Ms. Rule is admitted to practice in the State of Maryland and the District of Columbia and is a member of the bar of the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the United States District Court for Maryland.