About Jeffrey Albright
Mr. Albright is a partner whose practice focuses on telecommunications, water/electric utility law, water rights, and intellectual property.
Telecommunications. Mr. Albright helps most of the national wireless providers, including Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, Cricket and Virgin Mobile, with regulatory, cell tower siting and related issues. He assists regional carriers such as Cellular One and Plateau Telecommunications with similar proceedings. He has participated in hundreds of cases before the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission in rulemaking, regulatory and contested proceedings in support of his clients’ interests in expanding wireless service. He helps his clients appeal adverse decisions made by regulatory agencies and commissions to District Court and the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Consistent with Federal Communications Commission orders, Mr. Albright also helps wireless carriers file petitions for state and/or federal subsidies benefiting wireless customers in low-income areas. In January 2011, he was elected President of Solix Inc.’s Advisory Board for administration of the New Mexico Rural Universal Service Fund. He is the only attorney in New Mexico designated as a Best Lawyer in America in the area of Communications Law (which includes telecommunications).
Water/Electric Utility Law. Mr. Albright has been involved in more than 250 cases before the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission and some related cases before the New Mexico State Legislature. Cases before the PRC have included contested water, electric, and telecommunications utility cases and rulemaking proceedings involving renewable energy projects and portfolios, transmission proceedings, small generation projects for individual landowners, and various rate cases of PNM and El Paso Electric companies. At different times, his representation has been on behalf of both investors and end users.
His work has involved rates, rate allocation, transmission authority separate from or in connection with RETA, line extensions, service territory issues, solar and thermal solar technology, renewable energy credits, the Tres Amigas project, and cost of capital/return on equity issues involving both electric and water companies and their impacts on consumers. Mr. Albright has also helped individual clients with land use and local zoning requirements in the development of individual renewable energy small generation facilities for distribution projects.
Water Law and Water Rights. Mr. Albright’s water rights practice includes transfers, purchase and/or sale, valuation, well-share agreements, adjudications, and water conservation plans. Over the past several years, he has coordinated drafting 40-year water plans for the County of Bernalillo and other municipalities under the New Mexico Statutes. He has represented water and sanitation districts, water cooperatives, water utilities and water use associations.
Mr. Albright has significant experience assisting his clients in water rights adjudications before the Office of the State Engineer and in District Court. Throughout this process, he negotiates agreements that clarify existing ownership rights and guarantee ongoing water rights.
He hosted the first MCLE symposium in New Mexico on ground water infiltration and injection that was attended by more than 100 people. He is a regular presenter at the New Mexico Rural Water Users Association and has testified as an expert on water rights and water law in New Mexico District Court cases.
Intellectual Property. Mr. Albright’s intellectual property experience includes trademarks, combined marks, copyrights, trade secrets, works-for-hire, releases, assignments, derivative works, and licensing agreements. He has litigated fraud and trademark infringement cases in federal court and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeals Board. He protects his clients’ copyright interests on a wide variety of creative works including compilations, non-fiction books, theater productions, board games, training manuals, and artwork. He has obtained trademark and copyright registrations in foreign countries.
Mr. Albright also helps clients evaluate the financial value of their intellectual property assets, and he often works closely with IP appraisers during this process. In addition, he is a frequent contributor to the Albuquerque Journal’s Business Outlook on IP issues. Actively involved in the Intellectual Property Section of the State Bar of New Mexico, Mr. Albright was selected as the section’s initial chair in 2008, served as a board member thereafter, and is designated Chair-Elect for 2012.
Military Experience. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Mr. Albright is a retired naval officer and former commander of the destroyer U.S.S. Arthur W. Radford.