From risk avoidance counsel through game-changing litigation, Butler Snow’s Aviation Group guides clients through every stage to secure the best possible outcome.
Our multidisciplinary team of regulatory, product liability defense, insurance and crisis management lawyers possesses decades of experience in representing aviation industry clients. We have an impressive record in defending aircraft owners and operators, and manufacturers of airplanes, helicopters, aircraft engines, airframes and other components in complex, high-stakes product liability cases.
From single-party claims to multiparty, multidistrict litigation, mass tort cases and class actions, our lawyers resolve cases via early motions, at trial, on appeal and through negotiated settlements based on our clients’ short-term goals and long-term objectives.
Critical Expertise
At the soonest possible moment following notice of a catastrophic accident or loss, our team begins crafting a defense. Working closely with renowned industry experts that include cause and origin experts, accident reconstructionists and investigators, forensics examiners, metallurgists, mechanical engineers, and others, as needed, we evaluate the evidence, assess damages and causation, scrutinize claims and advise our clients every step of the way with an eye toward both regulatory investigations and litigation.
The Right Team
Our Aviation Group structures defense teams based on the facts, circumstance and issues of each individual case. Collaborating with lawyers throughout the firm, we handle everything from damage containment, regulatory inquiries and investigations through federal and state court litigation and post-incident remediation and recovery.
An Experienced Defense
We routinely try cases to verdict and have prevailed in cases alleging negligence, strict liability, breach of warranty, catastrophic injury, death, property loss, design and manufacturing defects, failure to warn and other claims. Our lawyers craft clear and convincing arguments and are adept at arguing causation defenses. We also have an impressive record in obtaining favorable liability-sharing and risk-transfer rulings and in winning dismissals based on jurisdictional and other procedural grounds as well as securing dismissals on substantive grounds.
Comprehensive Service
With knowledge of the federal and state laws and regulations applicable to the industry, our lawyers conduct internal investigations and represent clients in federal and state government and regulator investigation as well as in court. Members of our team have successfully represented clients before the NTSB, the Department of Homeland Security and its TSA division, the FTA, the FAA, and the DOJ.
Our litigation experience includes:
- Supply, service and distribution disputes
- Personal injury, death and property damage claims
- Fires and explosion cases
- Environmental spills, fuel leaks, and air, water and soil contamination cases
- Rate-making proceedings
- Post-incident regulatory inquiries and investigations
- Design and manufacturing defect and other product liability claims
- Federal and state court trials and appeals
- Response planning, and crisis management
- Negligence and strict liability claims
- Agricultural chemical application and overspray cases
- Equipment failures and malfunctions
- Insurance coverage and recovery
- Mass torts and toxic torts
We also provide comprehensive counsel to manufacturers, insurers and other key industry stakeholders, negotiating and drafting aviation industry transactions, advising on day-to-day legal issues and regulatory matters and using insurance coverage to limit and often avoid liability. We review and make recommendations regarding best practices and safety measures and advise on crisis and risk management strategies. In this way, we help our clients limit their liability exposure and best position them for success should an action arise.
Public Finance
Butler Snow’s public finance attorneys work with airports, aviation authorities, governmental entities, underwriters, banks and other participants in financing the acquisition, construction and expansion of critical aviation infrastructure. Our team serves as bond counsel, disclosure counsel, bank counsel and special counsel in a wide range of aviation-related financings, helping clients navigate complex regulatory, disclosure and financing requirements while advancing essential transportation projects.
We have experience with airport revenue bonds, passenger facility charge-backed financings, lease-purchase structures and other debt instruments used to fund terminal expansions, airfield improvements, hangar construction, emergency aviation equipment and other capital projects. Our attorneys work closely with issuers and stakeholders throughout the financing process, from transaction structuring and documentation through closing and post-issuance compliance.
Representative Experience
- Advised the Jacksonville Aviation Authority as bond counsel on short-term financing that provided liquidity for the pre-construction and construction of a new concourse expansion at Jacksonville International Airport.
- Served as bond counsel and disclosure counsel to the Capital Region Airport Commission in connection with passenger facility charge and subordinate lien airport revenue bond financings for improvements at Richmond International Airport.
- Served as bond counsel and disclosure counsel to the New Orleans Aviation Board on a multi-series General Airport Revenue Bond financing exceeding $606 million.
- Served as bank counsel in public finance transactions that included lease-purchase financing for helicopters utilized in emergency services operations in the Florida Keys.
- Assisted with public financing for capital improvement projects in Wilkes County, Georgia, including airport hangar upgrades and related airport infrastructure improvements.
