Maria Bun combines international experience with a commercial mindset to guide clients through complex aviation and asset finance transactions.
With global experience across New York and Asia, Maria advises airlines, lenders and lessors on high-value aviation and asset finance transactions. She helps clients navigate cross-border restructurings, complex financings and portfolio acquisitions, offering commercially tailored legal solutions. Her work enables clients to manage risk, close deals efficiently and achieve strategic growth in competitive markets.
Representative Experience
- Advised Barclays Capital Inc. as lead associate on Hawaiian Airlines’ $990 million senior secured notes exchange offer; recognized with the 2024 Airline Economics Americas Award.
- Served as counsel to GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A. on a $1.9 billion Chapter 11 exit financing and restructuring, supporting the airline’s emergence from bankruptcy.
- Represented PK AirFinance and Apollo in the acquisition of a $920 million portfolio of secured aviation loans from Standard Chartered Bank.
View More
- Acted as lenders’ counsel on the U.S. EXIM Bank-supported financing of five Boeing widebody aircraft for Ethiopian Airlines.
- Advised Sun Country Inc. on a $119 million term loan facility to acquire five 737-900ER aircraft, supporting fleet expansion.
- Advised Carlyle Aviation Partners in its $4 billion acquisition of AMCK Holdings’ 125-aircraft portfolio and 20 neo aircraft orders.
- Acted for commercial lenders in BBAM’s loan facility secured by 15 aircraft.
- Advised companies and investors on the founding of bespoke financing platforms for transportation assets.
- Represented Oak Hill Advisors’ lenders in the $182.5 million acquisition of a portfolio of shipping containers, advising on structuring and finance documentation.
- Advised a global investor group on emergency bridge financing for an aircraft portfolio impacted by COVID-19, enabling continued operations during market disruption.
- Counseled leading ECAs on pandemic-related loan amendments across multiple jurisdictions, helping clients mitigate financial exposure.
- Advised a global aircraft lessor on the delivery of three ATR aircraft to a Taiwanese airline with asset-backed financing.
- Represented Avation PLC in the sale-leaseback of Bombardier aircraft with export credit financing and intercompany debt structuring.
Professional Highlights
- Awards
- Recognized with Airline Economics Americas Award 2024 for lead role in Hawaiian Airlines’ $990 million exchange offer.
- Recognized as a Top Speaker at the Phillip C. Jessup International Moot Court Competition.
View More
- Publications
- “The Human and Economic Cost of Mass Torts and Manufacturers’ Strict Liability for Defective Products,” 43:1 Annals of Air and Space Law (2020)
- “Investing and Establishing a Business in Canada: A Smooth and Easy Path (with Franca Ciambella),” Consilium Law Corporation (2019)
- “The Energy Charter Treaty and Central Asia: Setting an International Standard for Energy-Related Disputes,” in Julien Chaisse & Jędrzej Górski (eds.), “The Belt and Road Initiative: Law, Economics, and Politics,” Brill Nijhoff (2018)
- “CISFTA and CEFTA: Mechanisms for Introducing Free Trade in Central and Eastern Europe Post-1989,” 4:1 University of Warsaw Journal of Comparative Law 63–95 (2015)
Education
-
B.C.L./LL.B, McGill University, Faculty of Law, 2017
B.A., History and International Relations, Sciences Po, 2014
Admissions
-
New York
Languages
-
Spanish
French
Romanian