Career in Aviation Law

[VORTIME]

Hi,

Can anyone advise on the pre-equiste requirements for a career in Aviation Law. Is the law quite uniform throughout Europe and does the ability to practise in one member state qualify one to practise in another?

What qualifications does one need? My aim is a degree in Accounting & Finance, Master in Law, ATPL - would such be sufficent to be considered an "Aviation Lawyer"?

Any feedback on job opportunities and such would be much appreciated.

VT

[TruthSlayer]

The first step is to qualify and begin practise as a lawyer. The second is to decide which area of 'aviation law' you seek to specialise in. I put it in inverted commas, because the subject is very wide and ill-defined. In reality, aviation law encompasses subject matter varying from criminal law (pilot prosecutions) to international law (treaties), competition law to insurance law. You get the point! It is difficult to become an expert in all of these fields.

I would suggest aiming for a position with a large city firm that acts for one of the major carriers, or alternatively aim yourself at an in-house airline legal team. My experience is that there are scraps of aviation work about, mixed with similar work from other clients, unless perhaps you were to train and set yourself up as a barrister specialising in the criminal side. However it takes a while to build a good reputation if that is the path you decide to follow.

There are good specialist post graduate aviation degrees available, for instance from McGill in Montreal. Check out the options.

A healthy interest in aviation, pilot experience etc will also stand you in good stead for the future. You may find out, as I ultimately did, that you would rather fly the aircraft than represent the airlines.

Good Luck.

T.

[fibod]

This (http://www.dla.com/service.asp?page=Aviation) might be of interest

[FlyingForFun]

You could try contacting Flying Lawyer, who seems to be widely acknowledged as one of the leading people in this area (although I'm fortunate enough to have not needed to find out for myself yet!) I've never met him, but, online, he seems like a nice guy - I'm sure he'd have some good advice to offer you.

I don't know if he reads this forum, but he can be found in Private Pilots, Rotorheads and JetBlast fairly frequently.

Good luck!

FFF
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[Crosswind Limits]

I would think to practice aviation law you would firstly need to qualify as a solicitor and to practice here in England you would need to be admitted as a solicitor of the supreme court of England & Wales. Whilst there are foreign lawyers working in London, their roles are very limited as jurisdiction is very important in the practice of law. Therefore you may be qualified to practice in England but that won't allow you to practice in France, unless you work for an English firm with an office there but even that isn't strictly speaking pracitising French law.

May I ask why you want to become a lawyer specialising in aviation? Remember, at the end of the day its 90% law and only 10% aviation-related, hence a fundamental knowledge of the law is a pre-requisite.