Clyde & Co boosts its legal services with two senior hires

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Law firm Clyde & Co has made two new senior appointments this year, following two hires in October 2021, as it expands its legal services in the fields of aviation financing, leasing, litigation, commercial and regulatory work.

In January the law firm added Kenneth Quinn as a partner in its Washington DC office, together with Orla Brady, working as senior counsel. Quinn is a well-known aviation litigation, regulatory, enforcement, antitrust, and commercial lawyer. Brady is formerly a trial attorney, from the US Department of Justice’s Aviation, Space and Admiralty Litigation Section.

The latest recruitments follow the appointments of Norman Fraser and Richard Mumford as partners in October 2021, together with their team from the boutique aviation law firm REN Legal, which joined Clyde & Co. Fraser advises banks, lessors and private equity funds on a range of aviation-related finance and corporate matters. Mumford is a lawyer who specialises in international legal disputes, predominantly in the aviation sector. Examples include aircraft and engine finance and repossession, lease and charter, maintenance, regulatory investigations, insurance claims and fraud. He is also a previous chair of the Air Charter (ACA).

Mark Bisset, global head of aircraft finance at Clyde & Co, told Corporate Jet Investor: “Aviation has been a core sector of the firm for many years. The firm is unfazed by the impact of Covid on aviation and continues to build on the strength of our global reputation in the market.”

Commenting on the merger with REN Legal, he said: “REN Legal was renowned across the aviation market. As the world emerges from the pandemic and commercial aviation recovers, we expect capital-raising and finance activity to increase in turn. Bringing this team on board will enable us to support clients as they take these next steps.”

Bisset said the recruitment will help Clyde & Co meet rising demand from private aviation. “During Covid, business jets demand has generally been booming. We’ve done a lot of trading of aircraft, particularly into the US. There are a lot of customers arriving into the business jet world who weren’t here before. Many people who didn’t want to fly on a commercial airline or go through a major airport decided to charter. They then realise that it’s rather nice and progressively move to perhaps fractional ownership and then very likely buying an aircraft. The result is that it’s a real seller’s market.”

Mumford agreed. “It will be fascinating to see how long this current upsurge in demand will last,” he told Corporate Jet Investor. “The revitalisation of the charter market creates improved financial returns for managed business jets across a wide range of aircraft types. We could see it as a bit of a bubble or see it as a genuine renaissance of the market. But, at the moment, it is looking pretty good and even overheated in some places.”

Commenting on the appointment of Quinn and Brady, Kevin Sutherland, Clyde & Co’s global chair, Aviation Practice told Corporate Jet Investor: “Orla Bradys arrival alongside industry expert Kenneth P. Quinns recent appointment, enables us to offer a leading regulatory, commercial, and trial capability from our Washington, DC office, across the US and internationally.”

Quinn joined the legal firm after working on several high-profile aviation cases, including the Pan Am Flight 103 Lockerbie Bombing in 1988, the ValuJet crash in Florida in 1999 and the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001. He has also worked as the general counsel and secretary of the Flight Safety Foundation for the past 20 years.

Quinn said: “Im thrilled to join Clyde & Cos international aviation practice, which I know well and have long regarded as the global top gun firm in aviation law. Were supporting the industry on its emergence from the pandemic, helping them to embrace and shape the environmental, infrastructure, and technological changes on the horizon.”

 

Clyde & Co’s – recent appointments – at a glance

Orla Brady, Senior counsel, joined February 2022

Kenneth P. Quinn, Partner, joined January 2022

Richard Mumford, Partner, joined October 2021

Norman Fraser, Partner, joined October 2021.

 

 

 

 

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