Kristin Jacobson

Kristin Jacobson

Partner
About

Kristin Jacobson is a regulatory attorney with 15 years of experience practicing before Public Utility Commissions in 11 western states. She previously served as in-house regulatory counsel for Sprint Communications before opening her own practice, where she worked full-time as outside counsel for Sprint. Kristin was responsible for Sprint’s state regulatory issues in California, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Utah and has handled audits, complaint cases, investigations, rulemakings, Lifeline, emergency service restoration and other major regulatory matters. 

She also has been significantly involved in state regulatory issues in connection with the merger between Sprint and T-Mobile.

Bar admissionsCalifornia

EXPERIENCE

Kristin Jacobson is a regulatory attorney with over 15 years of experience practicing before Public Utility Commissions in 11 western states. She previously served as in-house regulatory, land use and real estate counsel for Sprint Communications before opening her own practice, where she worked full-time as outside counsel for Sprint. Kristin has been responsible for a full range of Sprint's state regulatory needs, successfully handling audits, complaint cases, investigations, rulemakings, Lifeline, pilot programs, network deployment and operations compliance, new service plan offerings, mergers, emergency disaster response and service restoration and other major regulatory matters. 

She also has been significantly involved in state regulatory issues in connection with the SoftBank merger and most recently, the Sprint and T-Mobile merger.

Kristin was pivotal in securing some of the first Lifeline wireless Eligible Telecommunications Carrier designation approvals in the West Region, developed and negotiated a novel settlement in a high profile CPUC investigation, spearheaded state LifeLine reform thus transforming the Lifeline industry and created the first California LifeLine Pilot Program in collaboration with the CPUC. She has drafted countless comments, advice letter filings, settlement agreements, applications, data request responses, and legislative Bill language proposals and assisted with national policy initiatives regarding Lifeline, special access, network hardening and resiliency compliance and 5G deployment matters.

As in-house and outside counsel for Sprint, Kristin has provided legal guidance and acted as a liaison among nearly all of Sprint's operational units, coordinating closely with the federal legal team, engineering, network development and operations, marketing, security, finance, policy, Lifeline and emergency response teams, to name a few. She has served as a company representative with various industry organizations over the past 20 years.

Education
  • J.D., University of California, Davis School of Law
  • B.A., University of California at Los Angeles
    Honors College

Awards

  • The Legal 500 United States
    • Next Generation Partner, Telecoms & Broadcast: Regulatory (2023)
    • Recommended, Telecoms & Broadcast: Transactional (2023)

Prior Experience

Prior to joining Sprint's regulatory legal group, Kristin spent six years with Sprint's Real Estate department. She has a wealth of experience in negotiating and drafting cell siting real estate contracts and easements, resolving landlord disputes and managing settlement negotiations. She has obtained encroachment permits and access to public rights of way, resolved wireless infrastructure siting issues with cities and counties and represented clients before land use agencies in California and Boston.

Connect