DLA Piper announced that Kristin Jacobson has joined the firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology and Telecom practices as a partner in Northern California, based in the Sacramento office.

Jacobson is a regulatory attorney with 15 years of experience practicing before public utility commissions in 11 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. Jacobson has been 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.

“Kristin brings extensive experience in state-level regulatory work, which will greatly expand our capabilities to represent clients before key state commissions, as well as broaden our capacity to handle FCC and federal legal and regulatory matters,” said Nancy Victory, global co-chair of DLA Piper’s Telecom practice. “She is a highly regarded telecommunications practitioner and will be a fantastic addition to our team.”

“In California, regulators are continuing to assert jurisdiction over a wide range of emerging technologies, including autonomous vehicles, electric scooters and drones, and Kristin’s vast regulatory experience will be a tremendous benefit to clients who are active in these quickly evolving areas, in addition to those operating in the telecom sector,” said Victoria Lee, the firm’s regional managing partner for Northern California.

Jacobson received her J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law, and her B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles.