LightSquared Prepares To Battle The FCC, Hires Two Top Lawyers

Things have been looking bleak for LightSquared recently: the FCC denied it the ability to use its spectrum for an LTE rollout due to the risk of GPS being affected. LightSquared is also on the verge of running out of cash, having recently missed a payment on a $56 million loan from a British bank, and has also cut its workforce by 45%. Vowing not to go quietly into the night, LightSquared is reportedly getting ready to fight back.

The company has hired two conservative litigators, Theodore Olson and Eugene Scalia, suggesting LightSquared is ready to take a legal battle to the FCC over its alleged "mishandling" of the LTE situation. Olson told Politico that the LightSquared situation was "an egregious example of the government encouraging a company to invest an enormous amount of money to meet a national objective and then pulling the rug out from under them capriciously and precipitously."

He went on to say: "On the face of things, it looks to me like the government has acted arbitrarily after inducing the expenditure of an enormous number of resources." When asked about a legal strategy, Olson declined to comment, but did say that when they "dig into things" that they may end up with "a whole lot stronger case than people thought".

Theodore Olson and Eugene Scalia both have experience tackling the government in legal issues, which is why LightSquared have secured their services. Olson previously represented President Bush in the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case. Scalia, meanwhile, has been a litigator for the Labor Department, and has represented Boeing when they were involved in a dispute with the National Labor Relations Board.