Frank Wesley Lloyd III, a retired attorney who specialized in telecommunications law and was a partner with the firm of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, died on Oct. 31 at Georgetown University Hospital, his family reported. The cause was a sudden, rare neurological disorder resembling Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
From 1977 to 1981, he served as chief of staff to FCC chair Charles Ferris. From February to October 1977, he was with the Office of Telecommunications Policy in the Executive Office of the President. He joined Mintz, Levin as a partner in 1981, practicing at the firm’s Washington, D.C., office in the Communications section, and led the firm’s cable law practice, a biography supplied by his family noted.
Lloyd received his B.A. from Williams College (1963), his M.A. in English from the University of Michigan (1964) and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School (1967). He was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He served as a law clerk to Judge Charles Merrill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1967 to 1968.
He began his legal career in Washington with the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, Office of General Counsel. He then practiced communications, securities and tax law with Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering and later served as general counsel of the National Public Affairs Center for Television and then as executive director of the Citizens Communications Center, a public-interest law firm.
He was chair of the Practicing Law Institute’s annual programs in New York, Chicago and San Francisco on Cable Television Law, co-author of the four-volume treatise, “Telecommunications Regulation: Cable, Broadcasting, Satellite and the Internet” published by Matthew Bender, and an editor of the monthly newsletter, Cable T.V. and New Media Law & Finance. Lloyd wrote a monthly column on cable litigation as well as several law review articles on cable, copyright, and other aspects of communications law. He served as co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s Cable Practice Committee. These positions fed his passions for teaching, public speaking and travel.
His first marriage, which ended in divorce, to Kathryn (Miller) Chefetz produced two children, Jennifer Lloyd and Aaron Lloyd.
He married Elizabeth Louise Athey on Oct. 8, 1983, at Round Bay on the Severn River, in Severna Park, Md. Frank adopted Margaret (Athey) Press on July 7, 1988. Frank and Betsy welcomed the birth of Laura (Athey-Lloyd) Kalis in 1984 and William Athey-Lloyd in 1988. All together they formed a blended family, which Frank regarded as his proudest accomplishment.
Frank Lloyd was an active member of St. Mark’s Church on Capitol Hill for 49 years. He was also an enthusiastic skier, hiker, traveler, lover of music and dancing, volunteer, mentor, father and grandfather. He is survived by his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Athey; his five children and their spouses, Jennifer, Aaron (Ritu), Meg (Jon), Laura (Tom), Will; and five grandchildren, Joseph Wesley Press, Elsa Grace Press, Aashvi Charu Lloyd, Kai Shanth Lloyd, and Emma Elizabeth Kalis.
A Celebration of Frank Lloyd’s Life will be held Sunday, Dec. 2, at 1:30 PM at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Capitol Hill, 113 A St., S.E. Washington, DC.
The family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations should go to For Love of Children (FLOC), 1763 Columbia Road, NW, Washington, D.C. or St. Mark’s Church 113 A St., SE, Washington, DC.
