Laurence Hanley

I am an aviation finance specialist, advising on all structured finance matters, from LOI to funds flow, covering debt, JOLCOs, green financing, Balthazar and PIQ-type financings, specialist sale agreements, tax structuring and aircraft portfolio securitisations, with a specialisation in the negotiation of operating leases and litigation stemming from aircraft redeliveries. I also advise lessors and lenders, particularly in relation to security and asset recovery and assist with the setting up and operation of special purpose companies.

Leading the aviation finance team, I provide English and French law advice for all stages of financing an aircraft, from negotiating the all-important letter of intent to assisting with the practicalities of delivery and aircraft and security registrations. One particular strength is negotiating practical terms for operating leases, where my decades of experience promote watchfulness for onerous clauses and gives me the means to provide alternative solutions acceptable to the leasing industry.

I also advise on SAF and regulatory issues, and tax-efficient structures for leasing into certain jurisdictions, including by setting up SPC lessor vehicles in France.

My aim is to complement your own technical team by integrating with them over the documentation process, so that the documents match your operating reality, rather than expose you to a default by introducing obligations agreed between two legal teams with no insight into how you operate your business in practice.

The team is friendly and multinational, with French, English, German, Russian, Spanish and Arabic languages all spoken fluently by versatile lawyers with access to expertise critical to the commercialisation of emerging technologies key to the aviation industry, including, for example, the negotiation of SAF supply agreements.

Building lasting relationships with clients has provided the team with a unique back-catalogue of clauses that have been stress tested in practice, for example aircraft redelivery terms in scenarios where the redelivery condition of the aircraft is litigated, or where liability for an unexpected insurance premium tax is contested.

We are happy to assist younger companies who do not yet have all the experience that they require to give themselves the advantage of trading on documentation that allows them to compete with more established peers.

Our client base represents an interesting mix of airlines, lessors, and lenders, with the majority of lessor and lender work being focused on asset recovery, restructuring, advice on security and local corporate work.

• Advising an airline on one Balthazar and one PIQ financing for A350 aircraft, with green KPIs.
• Assisting airlines with the negotiation of operating leases for the delivery of over 20 aircraft in the last twelve months and on the sale and lease back of sixteen narrowbody aircraft.
• Assisting an airline on the financing of three B 787, two A 350 and one A 320 aircraft via JOLCOs.
• Assisting an airline on three French title reservation sale and leasebacks for three B 737 800 and one A350 aircraft.
• Setting up, maintaining, and providing corporate services to French-incorporated SPCs for lessors and airlines.

• Advising an airline in a dispute on the return of a widebody aircraft at the end of the operating lease.
• Advising a lender on its rights under two export-credit insurance policies.
• Advising a lessor on the recovery of aircraft engines leased to an insolvent airline.
• Assisting on an international insolvency and restructuring with a French nexus.