We are pleased to share Kaplan Kirsch’s Airport Law Digest – 2024 Year in Review. 

This Airport Law Digest includes a list of principal cases decided over the past year; new DOT and FAA rules, policies, and guidance; and reports, studies, and articles of interest to airport legal professionals.  We have attempted to provide links to publicly available documents, and most other documents are available via subscription services such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. 

We hope you find this Digest useful in your efforts to remain current in the always-evolving legal and regulatory framework that governs airports. If you have questions about any of the materials in this Digest, please contact editors Nicholas M. Clabbers and Adam Gerchick, or any other Kaplan Kirsch attorney who normally represents you.

Firm attorney Sara Mogharabi co-authored an article in the PFAS Regulatory Update by C&S Companies, highlighting the recent designation of PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under CERCLA. Effective July 8, 2024, this rule significantly impacts airport operators, who may now be liable for current and past releases of these PFAS chemicals, potentially requiring costly environmental remediation. Despite ongoing legal challenges from chemical companies and water utilities, the rule remains in effect. Airport operators must navigate these new liabilities carefully, as the designation presents substantial legal and financial risks. For a deeper dive into the implications of this rule, read the full article in the PFAS Regulatory Update.

We are pleased to share Kaplan Kirsch’s Airport Law Digest – 2024 Mid-Year Update. 

This Airport Law Digest includes a list of principal cases decided over the first half of 2024; new DOT and FAA rules, policies, and guidance; and reports, studies, and articles of interest to airport legal professionals.  We have attempted to provide links to publicly available documents, and most other documents are available via subscription services such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. 

We hope you find this Digest useful in your efforts to remain current in the always-evolving legal and regulatory framework that governs airports. If you have questions about any of the materials in this Digest, please contact editors Nicholas M. Clabbers and Adam Gerchick, or any other Kaplan Kirsch attorney who normally represents you.

Under the leadership of Chris Poinsatte, the CFO of DFW Airport, Firm attorney David Bannard, along with the ACI-NA and a collaborative group of industry leaders representing various facets of the airport industry, including environmental, sustainability, risk management, finance, and legal sectors, have diligently worked together to produce a white paper titled “Environmental, Social and Governance: An Introduction to Performance and Risk Management Metrics for North American Airports.”

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and risk management are becoming increasingly important to North American airports and their stakeholders. In an effort to support airport industry professionals, this white paper is aimed at helping manage both internal and external demands of producing and maintaining ESG data. The proposed ESG factors and metrics have been carefully developed to be appropriate and beneficial across a broad range of interests within the airport industry.

We are pleased to make this comprehensive white paper available to the airport industry and its stakeholders, providing valuable insights and guidance for enhancing ESG performance and risk management.

We are pleased to share Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell’s Airport Law Digest – 2023 Mid-Year Update. 

This Airport Law Digest includes a list of principal cases decided over the past year; new DOT and FAA rules, policies, and guidance; and reports, studies, and articles of interest to airport legal professionals.  We have attempted to provide links to publicly available documents, and most other documents are available via subscription services such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. 

We hope you find this Digest useful in your efforts to remain current in the always-evolving legal and regulatory framework that governs airports. If you have questions about any of the materials in this Digest, please contact editors Nicholas M. Clabbers and Adam Gerchick, or any other Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell attorney who normally represents you.

Click Here to Read the Digest

Firm partner, David Bannard, and Firm attorney, Brandon Rattiner, along with HMMH members, Sara Kaplan, Katherine Preston, and Jessica Wingen, published an ACRP First Look How New Corporate Environmental Standards Will Impact Airports. The content discusses the concept of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, which is a corporate disclosure framework focusing on an organization’s risks and mitigation strategies related to environmental, social, and governance matters. The document emphasizes that while sustainability is familiar to U.S. airports, ESG reporting is a new and rapidly evolving trend in the airport industry.

Read the Publication

We are pleased to share Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell’s Airport Law Digest – 2023 Mid-Year Update. 

This Airport Law Digest includes a list of principal cases decided over the past year; new DOT and FAA rules, policies, and guidance; and reports, studies, and articles of interest to airport legal professionals.  We have attempted to provide links to publicly available documents, and most other documents are available via subscription services such as Westlaw or LexisNexis. 

We hope you find this Digest useful in your efforts to remain current in the always-evolving legal and regulatory framework that governs airports. If you have questions about any of the materials in this Digest, please contact editors Nicholas M. Clabbers and Adam Gerchick, or any other Kaplan Kirsch & Rockwell attorney who normally represents you.

Click Here to Read the Digest

Firm partner David Bannard recently published a paper with The Journal of Airport Management examining the growing importance of ESG disclosure in the aviation industry, with specific focus on airports. This publication aims to familiarize airport managers and other stakeholders with the fundamental concepts behind ESG and shed light on the implications of these factors for airports by exploring the external impacts of airport operations on the environment and affected communities, as well as the entity’s compliance within its regulated environment. 

Click here to read the publication.

The collapse in U.S. air traffic during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates the speed with which a severe public health emergency can devastate the air travel industry. It further illustrates how quickly an airport operator may have to react to a public health crisis. In the TRB Airport Cooperative Research Program’s ACRP Legal Research Digest 44: Airports Responding to Public Health Emergencies: Legal Considerations, Firm attorneys Peter Kirsch and Adam Gerchick discuss potential legal issues that airport sponsors and other stakeholders in the airport industry could confront as they address a future public health emergency.

Firm attorneys Suzanne Silverman, Adam Giuliano, Ayelet Hirschkorn, Emily Eads, Christian Alexander, and Brandon Rattiner identify and analyze legal challenges that have resulted from, or are related to, the implementation of transit mega projects in Transit Mega Projects: Legal Issues.

Drawing on general research and experience, as well as specific examples from five mega projects, the digest seeks to introduce attorneys to the special or legal issues that such mega projects face, and to provide considerations and potential solutions by way of examples from past projects.
The five projects relied on in particular are:

1. Colorado Eagle P3 Project;
2. Transforming Rail in Virginia Initiative;
3. The California High-Speed Rail Project;
4. Sound Transit’s East Link Extension Project; and
5. The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail Project.

The digest includes lessons learned from transit agencies that have overseen federally funded complex mega projects, such as insights from reviewing third-party contracts and intergovernmental agreements, FTA guidance, pertinent legal decisions, and other valuable references. The digest also covers lessons learned from the above case studies and summarizes legal issues these mega transit projects faced, including funding, environmental challenges, contracts, design, insurance, dispute resolution, and intergovernmental coordination.