Paul F. Guarisco
Partner
Paul Guarisco practices in the areas of administrative law, business and finance, telecommunications, energy and utilities, and regulatory and governmental matters. He practices primarily before the Louisiana Public Service Commission, representing telecommunications and pipeline carriers, and electric, gas, sewer and water public utilities in all aspects of regulation, including certification, compliance, tariffs, litigation, hearings, audits, rate cases, rulemakings, dispute resolution/mediation, arbitration, mergers and acquisitions, changes of control and financing. He is a former staff attorney with the LPSC.
Experience
- Defended a competitive communications carrier as lead counsel concerning breach of contract and damages claims in multi-state litigation before public utility commissions in eight Southeastern States.
- Successfully represented telecommunications carriers before the LPSC in intercarrier billing and tariff disputes.
- Obtained numerous regulatory approvals, certifications and authorizations for carrier operations, sale and purchase transactions, financing, and LPSC-jurisdictional agreements.
- Testified before the Louisiana Senate Commerce Committee addressing bills affecting implementation of the Communications Act. Participated with an industry coalition in advocacy efforts before the Governor’s Administration successfully limiting federal broadband grants to governmental entities used to compete directly with private industry and carriers. Successfully lobbied the Louisiana US Congressional delegation on behalf of competitive telecom carriers to defeat passage of bills detrimental to competitive carriers.
- Successfully challenged the Louisiana State Office of Technology Management in a bid protest on behalf of an hosted-IP and VoIP provider.