Airports today face mounting pressure to address air service, congestion, security, competition and financial management. Yet they must tackle these problems within the significant constraints presented by their relationships with the federal and state governments, neighboring communities, airport users, and tenants. Solving these problems, and others presented by the operation and development of airports, often implicates a panoply of legal issues, including compliance with federal obligations; land use, noise and environmental concerns; collateral commercial development; public finance; national security; and day-to-day legal issues connected with operating what are essentially large businesses serving as public utilities. The firm provides a wide range of creative legal services to address these issues in their larger context.
The firm's airports practice is characterized by a comprehensive, creative and strategic approach that comes from a deep understanding and knowledge of the industry and its needs. Collectively, Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell lawyers have well over 100 years of experience in aviation law, and include a former General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Transportation; a former FAA legislative counsel and General Counsel to the National Commission to Ensure a Competitive Airline Industry; and a former in-house counsel to three of the nation's largest air carrier airports and one of the country's largest general aviation airports.
Among the wide range of matters where the firm's lawyers have provided advice and representation, before and since joining Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell, are airport siting; expansion and redevelopment; airport proprietors' rights in setting fees, accommodating users, and regulating on-airport conduct; security programs; First Amendment issues; financing airport development and operations; airport use and access regulations; airfield safety; noise regulations and budgets; minimum standards; rules and regulations; agreements between airports and neighboring governments concerning environmental impacts and development issues; land use compatibility planning and regulation; tenant leases; and litigation over these and other issues in both administrative and court proceedings, including the United States Supreme Court.
