March 27- Telecommunications:  T1

Cell Tower Leases

**This is a 90 Minute Webinar**

Speakers:  John Pestle & Jonathan Kramer

Local governments can generate long term revenues by leasing land, water towers and buildings for cellular communications towers and antennas. The key to a successful lease is the rental terms, plus the right terms and protective conditions so as to avoid potential legal landmines. John Pestle, Esq. and Jonathan Kramer, Esq. are highly experienced local government telecommunications attorneys who regularly craft and enforce municipal cell tower leases. In this 90-minute webinar, they will walk you through the process of dealing with the cell tower providers and their contractors to help get the best financial terms in leases, and identify and avoid the legal landmines commonly found in industry boilerplate provisions, including the risk of accidently triggering property reverters. They will also provide helpful practice pointers about the cell tower leasing and sales process. The program will cover both key aspects of cell leases, and the potential sale by municipalities of such leases, as well as long-term leasing rights. Extensive handouts in PDF format will be provided to participants, which commonly include local government attorneys, city managers and the real estate property managers working for local governments. A lively and interactive Question and Answer session will follow the presentation.

Speakers:  John Pestle & Jonathan Kramer

John Pestle is the Chair of the Telecommunications Group at the Varnum law firm, and is admitted to practice in Michigan and Arizona. He represents municipalities and private property owners nationwide on cell tower leases and zoning and other telecommunications matters. John is a graduate of Harvard College, Yale Graduate School, and the University of Michigan Law School. Among his many qualifications, John held an FCC license to work on radio, TV and ship radar transmitters and was Chair of the Municipal Lawyers Section of the Michigan Bar. He has received the "Member of the Year" award from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, and a "Special Award of Merit" from the Michigan Municipal League for his work representing municipalities on cable and telecommunications matters. For the Varnum web page on cell towers go to www.varnumlaw.com/celltower and for John's cell tower blog go to www.varnumlaw.com/blogs/cell-phone-tower/ .

Jonathan Kramer is the principal attorney of Telecom Law Firm in Los Angeles. Since 1984 as a consultant, and 2006 as an attorney, he has advised more than 800 government agencies regarding wireless and broadband matters. Telecom Law Firm works for governments and private landlords around the country crafting reasonably fair wireless site leases. The firm has made a mark detecting and collecting rent-inarrears for over-occupancy at lease sites, which is a frequent occurrence, and has resulted in 6 to 6-figure collections of back rent and interest, and increased rent going forward. Jonathan co-authored and edited the FCC’s publication for local government officials on radio frequency emissions safety, and at the request of the FCC he is presently revising and expanding it. Kramer holds a bunch of FCC licenses and telecom industry engineering certifications. Jonathan is admitted to practice in California and New Mexico, and holds a LL.M degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications Law.