Our aviation and maritime law practice extends from non-contentious projects to adversarial proceedings.
Our clients represent a wide cross section of the maritime industry - ship owners, managers, shipyards, financial institutions, charterers and crewing agents - and our experience is correspondingly broad and varied. We have expertise in the acquisition and disposition of newbuildings and used vessels. We are the legal counsel of choice of owners and charterers for legal compliance review of charters, as well as registration and deregistration of vessels under the Philippine flag. Major banks and financial institutions rely on us for legal advice on all aspects of ship financing, from perfecting their security interest over Philippine registered ships to enforcing mortgage liens.
Our adversarial work covers liability and claims relating to collisions, oil pollution, cargo, marine insurance and work-related disability of crew members.
Our firm assisted in the acquisition of the first Philippine-flag registered OBO carrier and the first RORO car carrier. We have won precedent-setting cases including the upholding of a charterparty’s arbitral clause calling for foreign arbitration and, in relation to a shipping disaster, we obtained for our client the affirmation of a vessel’s limited liability based on the real and hypothecary nature of maritime law.
We are the dominant firm in aircraft finance and leasing transactions. Our experience spans secured and ECA-guaranteed acquisitions of aircraft, as well as engine leases. Because of our strong banking and finance practice, we are able to advice on sophisticated cross-border financing structures meant to address regulatory, tax and other client-specific concerns. We also advise and assist in the registration and deregistration of aircraft. We have represented start-up and charter-only airlines before regulatory agencies in connection with their operating license applications.
We have acted for the aircraft lessors in the ECA-supported re-fleeting program of Philippine Airlines, the national flag carrier, and other local airlines.
We also have the unique experience of advising investors in the first securitization of airline ticket sales.
For other practice highlights and a representative list of clients, see Articles & Bulletins.
