Glenn Manishin, Esq.
Overview
Former AmLaw 100 partner representing selected clients on business law, M&A and litigation matters, focused on providing digital era representation to both emerging growth and mature technology ventures. Glenn Manishin works with clients ranging from crowdsource-funded startups to Fortune 500 corporations, and have participated in nearly all of the most important regulatory, judicial and legislative proceedings affecting telecom and the Internet for the past three decades — from the AT&T and Microsoft antitrust cases to the America Invents Act, patent reform and DMCA copyright policy. He has over the years represented a wide array of cutting-edge technology clients, including Netscape, MCI, Oracle, Excite@Home, Siebel, Google, Travelocity and others, on issues like broadband, unfair competition, cybersecurity and Internet regulation, interconnection and peering, spam, standards, privacy, domain name competition, Internet gaming and taxation, and universal service. Concentration: Business law, competition advocacy, startup counseling, M&A, standards, privacy and related public policy issues in software, Internet and other technology markets.
Antitrust
Antitrust law has long been a centerpiece of Glenn’s legal career, in which he is the only attorney to have appeared as counsel-of-record in the most significant antitrust cases spanning two generations — the US v. AT&T and US v. Microsoft monopolization cases. He was principal decree (MFJ) counsel for MCI, McCaw Cellular and other competitors before the late District Judge Harold Greene for more than a decade. Glenn then authored a landmark February 1999 White Paper by the Software & Information Industry Association proposing a divestiture remedy for the Microsoft antitrust litigation. He served as counsel for ProComp (The Project to Promote Competition in the Digital Age) and the Computer & Communications Industry Association — along with former Judges Robert Bork and Kenneth Starr — in the Tunney Act and subsequent federal appellate challenge to the government’s 2002 Microsoft settlement consent decree.
Glenn has more recently handled a series of ground-breaking antitrust cases arising out of the relationship between regulation and competition in network effects industries and the interface between IP and antitrust law. In the M&A arena, he has secured “early termination” of pre-merger antitrust review from both DOJ and FTC, without a “second request,” in more than $100B worth of M&A deals involving cable television set-top boxes, automobile fleet transportation, hospital-physician practice acquisitions and other markets, with coordinated international merger clearances in Russia, China, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and other countries.
Web & Software
Glenn’s software and Web experience dates to before the dawn of the commercial Internet, when he was a trend-setter in Web site development, creating one of the first 10 law firm sites in the U.S. He has advised clients as large as Netscape, Siebel, Google and Oracle — as well as dozens of start-ups and emerging growth companies — on software legal issues. These include revising products for compliance with the privacy and IT security requirements of the Health Information Privacy & Portability Act (HIPPA) and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLB), export of high-performance computing equipment (HPC), disability access, universal design, copyright, fair use and the Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA). He served as counsel and business advisor to U.S. Web in its entry to the Washington, DC market and to ReturnPath in complying with the 2003 CAN-SPAM Act, and has represented numerous Web-based businesses on privacy, authentication, acceptable use and unsolicited commercial email policies. Glenn’s practice has also encompassed piracy, licensing, joint venture and transactional representation for his software clients.
Telecom & Internet
Glenn has participated in virtually all of the most important regulatory, judicial and legislative proceedings affecting telecommunications and the Internet for more than three decades. He was one of a handful of lawyers selected by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis to present oral argument in Iowa Utilities Board v. FCC, the first federal appeal of the FCC’s rules implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996, by the Third Circuit in Philadelphia for Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, which reversed the FCC’s 2003 repeal of long-standing rules limiting broadcast and mass media concentration, and by the D.C. Circuit in 2007 for Vonage & CCIA v. FCC, the first judicial challenge to the regulated status of VoIP technology. He was instrumental in lobbying for the 1996 Act, in which he successfully represented the Computer and High-Tech Coalition in securing an amendment that limits the FCC’s standards-setting powers in computer-related markets, and in subsequent FCC and appellate cases opening local telephone networks for Digital Subscriber Line services and broadband Internet access. Glenn has served as outside counsel for several telecommunications trade associations, including CompTel, the DSL Access & Telecommunications Alliance (DATA), the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), and the International Prepaid Communications Association (IPCA). He has been appointed as pro bono counsel for such public interest organizations as Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America, the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility and the Sports Fans Coalition.
Complex Litigation
Glenn’s litigation experience spans more than 20 years and nearly every federal court in the nation. He has appeared as lead trial or appellate counsel in scores of major cases and has tried cases both alone and with larger litigation teams, including the largest reported jury verdict ($130 million) in Maryland in 2005. Recent complex litigation needs Glenn has handled for corporate clients include, in addition to antitrust, telecommunications disputes (incentive spectrum auction rights, intercarrier compensation, net neutrality, access charges, wireless roaming, etc.), intellectual property cases (copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, patent misuse) and transactional matters (venture and equity investments, outsourcing contracts, etc.). A particular concentration of Glenn’s is the unique form of controversy know colloquially as the “Washington policy battle.” These typically encompass political, media and legislative fronts in addition to formal court proceedings—often involving disruptive new competitive business models that challenge traditional regulatory models—and require a sensitive approach to both coalition-building and press appearances, in which Glenn is both a well-respected advocate and frequent commentator.
Background
Before founding PradigmShift Law, Glenn was a senior partner with Troutman Sanders LLP (2012-2015), Duane Morris LLP (2008-2012), Kelley Drye & Warren LLP (2001-08), Patton Boggs LLP (1999-2001) and a Washington, DC telecom boutique (1990-99). He is a former associate/partner with Jenner & Block, antitrust counsel to MCI, and trial attorney with the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. He served as a member of the US Access Board’s Telecommunications Accessibility Advisory Committee in 1996-97, and of the North American Numbering Council, an advisory committee to the FCC, in 1997-99.
Media & Publications
Glenn has written and lectured frequently on Internet and technology policy, appearing as a guest on such national media as CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Bloomberg, PBS, Fox News and NPR as well as in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, BusinessWeek and San Jose Mercury News. His publications include articles on the Google-Yahoo! advertising joint venture, convergence of the communications and computer industries, cybersecurity, spam, the AT&T divestiture and the role of the First Amendment in cable television.
Curriculum Vitae
Glenn is admitted to the California, District of Columbia and Virginia Bars, and is a member of the American Bar Association and the Federal Communications Bar Association. He holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was Notes & Comments Editor of the Columbia Law Review, and a B.A. cum laude from Brandeis University.
