Transportation Finance Digest

The goal of this publication is to provide our clients and the industry with probing insights into recent legal developments affecting transportation finance and leasing. It will be published at least annually.

The law is a heavy business, and we make no bones about the deeply substantive nature of this digest. We have striven here, however, as we do every day with our clients, to boil the legal principles down to their essence and to apply them to real-world, commercial situations.

In this edition, my colleague and I argue that the adoption of the Cape Town Convention has rendered lease chattel paper irrelevant. This is not reflective of any pro-debtor or pro-creditor stance; indeed, Pillsbury represents all its lessor, bank, airline and OEM clients with equal zeal. This is a pro-industry position, which advocates letting the Cape Town Convention do what is intended: simplify aircraft financing laws and make them more uniform.

The hallmark of our Transportation Finance Digest is the various case digests, contained in the right-hand column. In this issue, seven key U.S. legal decisions that affected aircraft finance, leasing and trading in 2012 have been summarized by our highly regarded team of associates.

The year 2012 was filled with achievement and recognition for our deep and widely-regarded bench. We have highlighted some of these in snippets throughout; however, we have given special prominence in two cases. Our Export Credit Q&A with Michael Schumaecker, Charlotta Otterbeck and Mara Abols looks at trends and perspectives in this space on the back of a year where Pillsbury acted for airlines, lenders and underwriters in connection with over $6 billion in U.S. export credit transactions. Our “Deal of the Year” feature highlights the groundbreaking efforts by a team of over 25 lawyers led by Pillsbury Partner Bill Bowers in order to close an 80+ engine re-securitization for long-time firm client Willis Lease.

Transportation Finance is a capital-intensive and highly fluid industry. It requires the work and cooperation of hundreds of finance, leasing, legal, insurance, technical, remarketing and other professionals across the globe to finance the world’s ever-growing fleet. Pillsbury is proud to be a long-standing contributor to this process. Thank you for reading our publication!

Download: Transportation Finance Digest