Locklin, Jack

Jaymes D. Littlejohn focuses his practice on real estate law and communications infrastructure development.  During more than 20 years of legal practice, Mr. Littlejohn has assisted telecommunications companies in finding successful solutions to handle difficult government regulations, which has resulted in the development of infrastructures supporting some of the most important emerging technologies in the country.  Mr. Littlejohn achieves favorable results for his clients by combining his experience in the fields of real estate transactions, telecommunications regulation (both state and federal), the use and regulation of public and private rights-of-way, zoning and land use, as well as related dispute resolution through mediation, arbitration, trial and appeal.  The unique blend of these otherwise unrelated disciplines combined with his pioneering approach led to the publication of Mr. Littlejohn's article entitled, "The Impact of Land Use Regulation on Cellular Communications:  Is Federal Preemption Warranted?"

Since his first year in practice, Mr. Littlejohn has sought governmental approvals for controversial installations with minimal government delays and expense.  He also drafts and negotiates agreements with federal, state, local and even tribal government entities to enable the use of public lands and structures by his clients, and even to allow for the use of his clients' facilities by such government entities.  As one of the first to work in this novel area, Mr. Littlejohn's efforts enabled the very first cellular installation on land regulated by the Federal Department of Transportation (Fed/DoT).  He has worked to resolve issues surrounding the use of Native American Tribal Lands and those lands with Native Cultural and Religious significance, involving issues with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and State Historical Preservation Offices (SHPOs).

Mr. Littlejohn has also worked with state and local government agencies for the use of rights-of-way for fiber optic installation.  For example, at a time when the state of Minnesota had adopted a policy that prohibited any installation of lines in its limited access rights-of-way unless contracted through a single source provider, he represented a fiber optic communications company to secure its right to use a portion of right-of-way that crosses the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.  As a result of environmental protections in place for this area, the client's alternatives for bringing its fiber from the southwest suburbs to the southeast suburbs of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul were extremely limited and costly.  The right-of-way permit that was obtained uniquely allowed Mr. Littlejohn's client the access that was needed in an area where that access had been routinely denied.

Mr. Littlejohn has successfully represented his clients before state, local and federal regulatory agencies run by both elected and appointed officials.  This practice has led Mr. Littlejohn to appear in and otherwise work with scores of cities, townships and counties in the Midwest.  In addition to this representation, Mr. Littlejohn has represented his clients before state and federal trial courts, appellate courts, and state and federal regulatory agencies.

Sharing his experiences with other attorneys and law students to help them gain a better understanding of this innovative approach to real estate and infrastructure development, Mr. Littlejohn has also served as a panelist at the Regional Communications Law Forum sponsored by Minnesota CLE and has guest lectured on related zoning and land use topics at the Hamline School of Law.

Currently, Mr. Littlejohn is in charge of Moss & Barnett's representation of one of the nation's largest wireless communications (voice and data) companies for its real estate activities in the upper midwest.  This work includes providing the legal advice related to the acquisition of real estate fee interests for both local and regional switching centers, easements, rights-of-way and leasehold interests for the development of its system in the upper Midwest.  This involves hundreds of sites under different stages of development at any one time, in addition to condemnation, disputed matters related to existing infrastructure and representation before state, county, township and municipal authorities to both negotiate agreements and resolve zoning issues.  All in all, this work includes a number of issues that all infrastructure developers should consider, including the environmental conditions of the real estate, title to real estate, standardizing agreements with current landowners for conveyance of lands that need not be condemned and analyzing the business risks attendant to acquiring property that may be less than ideal.

Working directly with the client's outside environmental and acquisition consultants, as well as the client's non-lawyer employees, we have refined a system that uses a secure, web-based extranet to document the status of each project, while limiting access to privileged information to ensure that the attorney-client privilege remains intact while still providing online status reporting and secure access to documents needed by our clients and consultants to perform their work effectively and efficiently.