Rowland & Moore LLP

Telecommunications Experience

Text Box: Since the formation of Rowland & Moore LLP, Tom Rowland and Steve Moore have worked with numerous companies entering the local exchange market, providing a full range of legal and consulting services in several states, including Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. A list of those activities is provided on the Telecommunications Activities page of this web site. Prior to the formation of Rowland & Moore LLP, both partners were active in the telecommunications arena. From 1982 through 1985, Steve Moore was the lead attorney in the Illinois Attorney General’s office on telecommunications issues. In that role, he helped formulate and implement that office’s response to the divestiture of AT&T and advocated on behalf of the public in the various subsequent ICC proceedings. He advised the Attorney General on major revision to the state’s telecommunications law in 1985 and was an active participant in the drafting of that law. In 1986, he was appointed by the Governor to run the newly created Office of Public Counsel, where he directed participation in the transition to a competitive environment in telecommunications, including significant changes in rate design of Illinois Bell and implementation of the competitive provision of the new law. Tom Rowland was the lead telecommunications attorney at the Office of Public Counsel, where he successfully challenged various Illinois Bell attempts to revise depreciation rates and expenses, eventually winning at the Illinois Appellate Court. As the Supervisor of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Public Utilities Division, Tom continued that work and also played a major role in the eventual Appellate Court reversal of an ICC order approving Illinois Bell earnings sharing plan because of lack of statutory authority. He subsequently went to Washington D.C. where he assisted the National Cable Television Association in its efforts to enter the local exchange telecommunications market. He has contacts in the Far East, including Hong Kong and mainland China.