Tillman L. Lay

Tillman L. Lay is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Best Best & Krieger. He specializes in representing local governments and other public sector clients on broadband, telecommunications, wireless siting, cable television, public safety, rights-of-way franchising, tax, property law, constitutional law, antitrust and other federal law matters. He has represented clients before the FCC, Congress, and the courts, including the Supreme Court and several Courts of Appeals. He has filed amicus briefs on behalf of the Local Government Legal Center in three Supreme Court cases, including the just-decided FCC v. Consumers’ Research, No. 24-354 (U.S. June 27, 2025), which upheld the FCC’s Universal Service Fund against constitutional challenge. He represented local government clients in Sprint Corp. v FCC (9th Cir.), consolidated appeals of the FCC’s 2018 orders relating to small cell facilities, and City of Eugene v. FCC (6th Cir.), one of several appeals of the FCC’s 2019 order concerning cable franchise fees. He also represented the National Hispanic Media Coalition in Mozilla Corp. v. FCC, 940 F.3d 1 (D.C. Cir. 2019), the consolidated appeals of the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order. He has testified before a House Subcommittee on behalf of National Association of Counties, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and the Government Finance Officers Association concerning legislation that would have imposed a moratorium on state and local cell phone taxes. He also represented those associations in negotiations that led to the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act of 2000, 4 U.S.C. §§ 116 et seq. He received his undergraduate degree with highest honors from the University of Tennessee, and he is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable John C. Godbold, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.