Legal Affairs Committee Meetings & Events


Legal Affairs Committee Meetings & Events

The Legal Affairs Committee held seminars in Boston on Saturday and Sunday, September 20-21 at the Hynes Memorial Convention Center.  On Saturday, the committee was greeted first by Committee Chair Jeff Letwin of Pittsburgh, followed by an introduction by Dave Mackey, Legal Steering Group member from Boston, of Ed Freni, Director of Aviation, Boston Logan Airport.  In a very warm and informative manner, Mr. Freni welcomed the committee members to Boston and recognized the important work done by airport lawyers.

The opening seminar on airport use and lease agreements led by Steering Group members Helen Raabe of Denver and Harvey Levin of Moline, featured lawyers and consultants experienced in airport lease negotiations.   The speakers provided observations from the standpoint of airport and airline interests at airports of varying sizes and including different mixes of carriers (i.e., legacy vs. affiliated regionals vs. independent regionals vs. international vs. alliance members vs. low cost carriers).  They also challenged the traditional long-term lease model’s viability in some environments and suggested consideration of evolving shorter-term leases.  Eduardo Cotillas of Chicago, Vice-Chair of the Steering Group, then led a roundtable discussion reviewing some important questions raised through write-in submissions from members of the Legal Affairs Committee, including one regarding FBO operations from Dave Bannard of associate member Foley & Lardner, and one regarding canine ordinances from Kelly Martin of Los Angeles.  William Hoyt, Second Vice-Chair of the Insurance and Risk Management Committee then provided an overview of a recent survey of ACI-NA member airports on terrorism insurance.  The first day of the seminar concluded with updates on pending litigation of interest to airport members including LAX III, the Barnstable litigation, BMI, Vacation Village, Tinicum Township, slot auction rulemakings at DOT and associated judicial and PANYNJ proceedings, bond insurance antitrust litigation in Los Angeles, and other rates and charges, noise, rental car and taxicab litigation matters.

The Sunday seminars began with regulatory updates from an impressive group of government officials:  David Capozzi, Acting Director, U. S. Access Board; Sam Podberesky, Assistant General Counsel for Aviation Enforcement & Proceedings, U. S. Department of Transportation; Nancy Kessler, Senior Attorney-Advisor, U. S. Department of Transportation; D. Kirk Shaffer, Associate Administrator for Airports, FAA; and Francine Kerner, Chief Counsel, Transportation Security Administration.  The regulators also made themselves available for small group discussions with interested conference registrants during breakfast and lunch.  A review of regulatory developments affecting avigation easements was then presented by Richard Marchi of the ACI-NA staff, Lee Thompson of Las Vegas, Joseph Messina of Philadelphia, and Tom Anderson of Minneapolis.  The Committee members were provided a legislative update on pending issues affecting airports by Annie Russo, Director, Government & Political Affairs, ACI-NA, followed by a review of Executive Order 12989 and the E-Verify employment verification system, including results of a survey of ACI-NA members’ familiarity with and/or use of the system by Lydia Kellog, ACI-NA Senior Manager, Public Safety and Security.

The fall conference concluded with three concurrent sessions co-sponsored by the Legal Affairs Committee with three other ACI-NA Committees.  A session on airport disparity studies was planned with the Business Diversity Committee and moderated by Nancy Kesteloot of Phoenix.  An interesting panel including new AMAC Chair and DFW airport business officer responsible for overseeing business diversity programs, and lawyers and consultants who serve as ACI-NA associate members that are active in assisting airports in undertaking disparity studies, provided a wealth of information to session attendees.  In another session, climate change issues were explored with members of the Environmental Affairs Committee.  Presentations were made on the airline perspectives and initiatives by ATA representative Tim Pohle, climate change and NEPA and  an overview of EPA climate change initiatives by ACI-NA associate member law firm representatives, FAA climate change initiatives by Lynne Pickard of FAA and the Legislative Outlook by ACI-NA staff.  Legal Developments in Human Resources, presented with the Human Resources Committee and moderated by new Legal Steering Group member Robert Watson of Nashville, featured speakers from ACI-NA member airport and associate member lawyers who reviewed issues involving the electronic workplace, off-duty misconduct--hidden dangers for employers, and business ethics in an airport environment. 

Access to presentations made during the Legal Affairs Committee fall conference are available by clicking on the attached link:

Legal Affairs Committee Fall 2008 Pre-Conference Seminars

Contact ACI-NA's Monica Hargrove Kemp for more information»

2008 Meetings

Spring 2008 Conference - April 15-18, Fort Lauderdale


Fall 2008 Conference - September 20-21, Boston

Please click on the attached link to provide your Evaluation of the Fall Conference


Past Meetings

Past presentations at Legal Affairs Committee meetings:


CLE Seminar Information

2007 Kansas City, Missouri

2007 Savannah, Georgia

2006 Reno, Nevada

2006 Anchorage, Alaska

2005 Toronto, Canada

2005 Hamilton, Bermuda

2004 Houston, Texas

2004 San Diego, California

2003 Tampa, Florida

2003 Vancouver, Canada

2002 Boston, Massachusetts

2001 New Orleans, Louisiana

2000 Williamsburg, Virginia

1999 Banff, Canada

1998 Orlando, Florida

1998 Monterey, California

1997 Detroit, Michigan

1997 Albuquerque, New Mexico

1996 San Francisco, California

1996 San Diego, California