We reference this story from the (US) National Law Journal because it’ll be interesting to see whether the Australian budget plan for national..
high speed international access will have a similar stimulus for Australian firms….
Amanda Bronstad writes for The National Law Journal
Broadband May Deliver for Law Firms Stimulus bill to inject high-speed Internet access into unserved and underserved communities may generate legal work
April 21, 2009
Lawyers are gearing up for what could be a significant amount of legal work tied to funds in the federal economic stimulus bill designed to expand and improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure.
The stimulus bill, which was passed on Feb. 17 as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, allocates $7.2 billion for the development of broadband infrastructure, which provides high-speed Internet access. Public comments about the details of the funds ended on April 13, with applications for the first round of grants due in a few months.
Many law firms, particularly those with experience in federal government grants and telecommunications, are advising clients on what kinds of projects could attract funding. Lawyers at those firms anticipate considerable work helping clients prepare successful grant applications.
"I anticipate it will be a fairly significant amount of work for lawyers because I think there are going to be possibly thousands of grant applications filed with these agencies asking for these stimulus funding grants," said James M. Smith, of counsel to the Washington office of Seattle’s Davis Wright Tremaine.
"That is going to require a fairly complex and well-crafted application, and that is going to entail outside counsel work," Smith added
http://www.law.com/jsp/ihc/PubArticleIHC.jsp?id=1202430130012&Broadband_May_Deliver_for_Law_Firms
