Like their products and technologies, the aerospace and aviation industries operate beyond traditional boundaries. Jones Walker LLP helps clients pursue strategic goals and manage day-to-day issues in this dynamic sector.
Jones Walker represents companies across the spectrum, including manufacturers of aerospace, defense, and aircraft products and components; airlines and charter operators; airport and fixed-base facility operators; owners of private aircraft; research and development companies; and lenders. We recognize that our clients are, quite literally, exploring new frontiers. To that end, we provide advice that is simultaneously experience-based and forward-looking.
Our team includes attorneys with a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing these industries, as well as the unique issues that distinguish aerospace and aviation companies from each other. Equally important, we have firsthand, real-world experience as users of many of our clients’ technologies. Our practice includes, among others, licensed commercial helicopter and fixed-wing pilots, a board-certified (Florida) aviation law specialist, highly trained engineers and scientists, and an adjunct professor of space law at the University of Alabama.
Members of our practice also have served as chair of the Defense Research Institute’s (DRI) Aviation & Aerospace Specialty Law Group; are actively involved in the American Bar Association Forum on Aviation and Space Law; speak frequently on drone-, aviation-, and aerospace-related events sponsored by the DRI, the Marshall Space Flight Center, and other industry organizations; and are faculty members and lecturers on unmanned aerial vehicles, space law, and related subjects at the University of Alabama College of Engineering.
With offices across the United States and attorneys practicing in key industry hubs in Texas, Alabama, and Florida — home to many of the leading aerospace and aviation companies in the nation — we are uniquely positioned to provide end-to-end counsel on a broad range of legal issues facing aerospace and aviation companies.
We regularly advise clients on all aspects of:
We provide broad-based regulatory counsel on federal and state laws and regulations such as the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act and other legislative initiatives that support, incentivize, and regulate scientific research and technology applications.
Our corporate and finance teams have handled scores of US domestic and international acquisitions and leases of whole, partial, and fractional interests in fixed-wing and rotary aircraft; assisted aircraft owners with the regulatory requirements of parts 91 and 135 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs); and represented borrowers and lenders in the negotiation and documentation of a broad range of loans, credit facilities, and other financing options related to the acquisition of aircraft, facilities, and other assets. At the other end of the finance life cycle, our bankruptcy and restructuring attorneys have represented secured lenders in restructurings, workouts, and related matters involving more than half of the 10 largest US-based airlines. These matters have included a range of mixed collateral, such as jets and airplanes, spare parts and rotables, rights to gates, and related property interests.
When disputes arise, our experienced litigators provide strong support for our clients, whether negotiating settlements, pursuing resolution through arbitration, or arguing matters at trial and in appeals. Among other domestic and cross-border cases, we have represented clients in disputes involving the following:
Our attorneys have extensive experience helping commercial airlines, manufacturers, utilities, aircraft maintenance companies, insurers, and other businesses respond to and address litigation arising from airplane crashes and accidents. We also represent clients in investigations and enforcement matters involving FARs, National Transportation Safety Board accident investigations, and Federal Aviation Administration certificate enforcement actions.