Jonathan J. Frankel Partner

PDF Version

The Army and Navy Club Building
1627 I Street, N.W. Suite 850
Washington, DC 20006
jfrankel@s-elaw.com
Tel: 202.293.6841  Fax: 202.293.6842

Jonathan Frankel joined Steese ♦ Evans ♦ Frankel, P.C. in 2009 and opened the firm's Washington, D.C. office. Prior to that, he was a partner with WilmerHale LLP.

Mr. Frankel is a skilled and versatile litigator who has argued many high-profile appeals in federal and state court, and who has first-chaired numerous complex bid protests and other court and agency trials. Mr. Frankel works with government contractors, telecommunications companies, utilities, and other highly regulated entities to devise creative solutions to regulatory problems. He has a particular talent for translating complicated engineering and economic concepts into arguments that lay audiences can understand.


Practice

Mr. Frankel has extensive experience helping clients advocate in front of—and litigate against—government agencies such as the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Defense, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and state public utility commissions. He has represented contractors in disputes with the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Air Force, the Army, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor, the Office of Personnel Management, and NASA; overturned (or successfully defended) numerous FCC and FERC decisions in court on behalf of carriers and utilities; and blocked municipal price regulation of pharmaceutical companies. In addition, he has litigated many commercial and constitutional appeals, including the Supreme Court challenge to the Line Item Veto Act and successful defense of the Family and Medical Leave Act in the same court.


Recent Highlights

Government Contract Litigation

Mr. Frankel successfully defended the Department of Labor's award of a $50 million financial management services contract against parallel fast-track bid protest proceedings in the Court of Federal Claims and the Government Accountability Office.

Mr. Frankel persuaded the US Court of Federal Claims to enjoin the Coast Guard from transferring the work of an incumbent IT contractor to a competitor via an illegal, sole-sourced contract.

Mr. Frankel has worked with a provider of human-resource software systems to challenge a federal agency's termination of a multi-hundred-million dollar contract for default.

Mr. Frankel brought a pre-award challenge before the Government Accountability Office to the Department of Health and Human Services' process for awarding Head Start program contracts. The challenge led the agency to reform its procedures voluntarily. He then successfully defended the Department's contract awards under the revised procedures against challenges by a disappointed bidder.


Regulatory and Appellate Litigation

Mr. Frankel brought a successful challenge in the DC Circuit to the FCC's rules changing the protections inherent in broadcast licenses and authorizing unlicensed deployment of broadband-over-power-line equipment. (ARRL v. FCC)

Mr. Frankel brought a successful challenge in the Tenth Circuit to the FCC's rules for subsidizing telephone service to rural and high-cost customers on behalf of two of the Bell Companies. Winning the case turned on the effective presentation of complex statistical evidence and argument. The decision overturned the basis of a $300 million federal program and was written up in the American Lawyer as one of the most significant litigation victories of the year. (Qwest Communications International v. FCC)

Mr. Frankel persuaded the DC Circuit to overturn an order of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission purporting to replace the board of directors of an electric utility. The DC Circuit agreed that the FERC's jurisdiction under the Federal Power Act did not extend to the governing board of a public utility. (California Independent System Operator v. FERC)

Mr. Frankel successfully briefed and argued a suit by The Washington Post against former Maryland Governor Parris Glendening seeking access to the Governor's official appointment calendars and telephone records. The case was the first decision by a state supreme court in the country recognizing a public right of access to these types of documents. (Office of the Governor v. The Washington Post Company)

Mr. Frankel recently defended the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools' sexual-education and sexual-orientation tolerance curriculum against constitutional and statutory challenges brought by several national organizations. He and his team were awarded Metro DC PFLAG's 2008 Corporate Pro Bono Award for this work.

Mr. Frankel co-authored the Supreme Court brief successfully defending the federal Family and Medical Leave Act as a valid abrogation of the states' Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunities. The decision in Hibbs v. Nevada Department of Human Resources permits state government employees to sue their employers for damages for violations of the FMLA and expands the authority of Congress to adopt legislation addressing past gender and racial discrimination by state governments.

Mr. Frankel also co-authored the winning Supreme Court briefs in Rubin v. Snake River Potato Growers, Inc. and Clinton v. City of New York, which struck down the federal Line Item Veto Act as an unconstitutional abdication of Congress' lawmaking authority to the President.


Professional Activities

Mr. Frankel is the former Chair of the Computer and Telecommunications Section of the District of Columbia Bar. He also is a Barrister of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, whose membership is by invitation only.