Burton F. Peebles is Associate in the Atlanta office of Gordon & Rees and is a member of the Employment practice group. Mr. Peebles specializes in employment law and commercial disputes.
He has broad experience with federal and state administrative trial practice, including general employment defense work, as well as non-solicitation and non-compete enforcement actions; telecommunications regulation; business formation; and compliance strategy.
Mr. Peebles has successfully navigated a wide range of public- and privately held business entities through the defense against allegations of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state agencies, through and including alternative dispute resolution.
Mr. Peebles also frequently advises and defends employers in actions arising from hiring and screening procedures, including compliance with the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and he has both defended and initiated enforcement actions on behalf of employers under Georgia’s restrictive covenant and trade secrets laws.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Peebles served as a regulatory associate with a boutique law firm in Metro Atlanta representing telecommunications and emerging technology companies before the FCC and all state regulatory commissions.
In this role, he successfully steered municipalities and city managers through wholesale review and revision of existing municipal code and has defended business entities undergoing both administrative investigation and defending against a broad range of consumer complaint proceedings.
Mr. Peebles has also handled matters regarding business creation; state utility rate proceedings; corporate governance and regulatory compliance; both federal and state Universal Service Funds (USF); FCC and state Eligible Telecommunications Carrier (ETC) Petitions and Certifications; inmate telecommunications service (ITS); municipalities; and complex settlement negotiations.
Mr. Peebles received his J.D., with honors, from Emory University School of Law, where he was a merit scholarship recipient. While at Emory, he served as the Executive Notes and Comments Editor for the Emory Law Journal, which selected his student comment for publication, and as a student coordinator with the Office of Student Engagement.
He completed internships with the Honorable Alan J. Baverman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia; The Coca-Cola Company, Global Marketing Group; and the U.S. Department of Education, in addition to serving as an appellate clinician with the Barton Law and Policy Center.
Mr. Peebles earned his B.A., with highest distinction, in journalism and mass communication, with an emphasis on public relations, along with a minor in social and economic justice, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012, where he served on the Editorial Board of The Daily Tar Heel, as a Buckley Public Service Scholar, and as a Senior Marshal.
As an undergraduate, Mr. Peebles also completed administrative internships with both the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in Washington, D.C., and assisted regulatory research as a research assistant to a professor at the UNC School of Law.
EDUCATION :
- J.D., with honors, Emory University School of Law, 2015
- B.A., with highest distinction, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2012
Admissions :
- Georgia
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia
- Supreme Court of Georgia
Memberships :
- Member, Stonewall Bar Association
- Voting Member, Federal Communications Bar Association
Community Involvement :
- Atlanta Carolina Club – UNC General Alumni Association, Vice-Chair
- Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association, Co-Captain, Piedmont Play’az
- Human Rights Campaign
EXPERIENCE :
- Successfully navigated a major Georgia municipality through comprehensive municipal code revisions, ensuring compliance with emerging federal and state regulations with respect to telecommunications structure installation and appropriate use of public rights of way.
- Represented one of the nation’s largest inmate telecommunications service (ITS) providers before the Georgia Public Service Commission in arguing for increased rate caps for end users at prison facilities in compliance with existing federal standards.
- Successfully represented over fifteen nation-wide wireless resellers and cloud-based technology companies before administrative law judges of state public service commissions to obtain licenses and requisite certifications to participate in federal low-income subsidy programs.
- Coordinated the response to and successfully assisted the settlement of a FCC Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) for a nation-wide telecommunications service provider defending against allegations of consumer slamming and cramming.
Cost
Rate : $$$