Richard Stock, Mayer Brown JSM

LEADING LAWYER DIRECTORY – Richard Stock, Mayer Brown

Richard Stock is a business jet lawyer based in Hong Kong. He is a partner at Mayer Brown JSM and has over twenty years of experience in aviation.

Partner
Hong Kong
+852 2843 2368
[email protected]

Richard’s advice

“In my part of the world (I work in Asia, with a particular focus on the Greater China region): be respectful, expect the unexpected, and be patient at all times. Rationality usually wins.

“Never lose respect for what our client’s counter-party is seeking to achieve. I say this because few people are completely irrational and unreasonable; there is usually a reason for a request made by a counter-party. I see a lawyer’s role as extending beyond the protection of our client’s legal interests; we must also seek to facilitate the successful completion of the transaction. Sometimes, that requires us to listen as effectively as we speak.”

Background

When I moved to Hong Kong in 1992, I was offered the opportunity to join a number of law firms. I had learned to pilot a glider while at university, so it seemed natural to join a team at Johnson Stokes & Master (as it was then) which specialised in aviation matters. I spent a number of years doing nothing but documenting the financing of commercial aircraft by various means – syndicated debt, ECA-supported debt and tax-driven structures. This practice later developed, first by adding aircraft trading (new and used aircraft purchases and operating leases), later by adding aircraft maintenance (including large-scale engine maintenance programmes) and in the mid-noughties, corporate jets.

Official biography

Richard Stock is a partner in the Hong Kong office of Mayer Brown JSM’s finance practice. He focuses his practice on the aviation industry, with nearly twenty years experience assisting airlines, lessors and financial institutions to negotiate and document leasing and financing arrangements for commercial aircraft. He also has a busy corporate jet practice, representing owners, lessors and financial institutions in the purchase, leasing and financing of corporate jets.

Richard has represented airlines, lessors and owners who intend to purchase new aircraft from OEMs; the total value of these transactions exceeds USD 20 billion. He has also represented airlines, lessors and owners in equipment procurement programmes and out-fitting agreements for new and used aircraft.

Richard has a particular interest in used aircraft and in aircraft and engine maintenance. Richard has assisted airlines to negotiate service agreements for airframe and engine maintenance. Many of these service agreements involve sizeable revenue streams; the engine service agreements alone involve revenues in excess of $7 billion.

Richard also advises investors seeking to establish joint ventures in the aviation industry, including the establishment of new airlines, the re-purposing of existing airlines and other aviation-related matters.