Our transportation practice group serves international, national, and local clients in all aspects of aviation law, product liability defense, and insurance coverage related matters. This group is jointly led by David Adams and Tom Burke who bring together more than 70 years of trial and counseling experience in the field.
Our aviation attorneys’ experience and competence covers the spectrum from airports and airlines to general aviation litigation and counseling to product liability defense. We have successfully represented airlines, pilots, flight schools, FBOs, commercial operators, mechanics and repair stations, designers, manufacturers and distributors of aviation products in a broad range of litigation and counseling settings. Our experience also includes defending and pursuing subrogation claims for insurers. We counsel corporate aviation regarding aviation emergency response plans (ERP) designed for their fleets of corporate jets and regularly participate in ERP workshops sponsored by the National Business Aircraft Association and Flight Safety Foundation. Three of our aviation lawyers hold pilot licenses with corresponding experience in general aviation and corporate aviation as well as one having served as an U. S. Air Force fighter pilot for 10 years.
Our product liability litigation experience is similarly broad with more than four decades of experience defending the manufacturers of motor vehicles, farm equipment, industrial equipment, airplanes and helicopters and their component parts as well as counseling and litigating patent-related matters. We have also handled cases involving catastrophic maritime injuries.
Our trial experience is extensive. Tom Burke has the enviable record of not having lost a product liability trial in 33 successive jury trials including 25 consecutive victories for General Motors. In his role as one of the national trial lawyers for GM and TRW, Tom has tried cases in jurisdictions from New York to Hawaii while also appointing or supervising local counsel throughout the country. Another HPS partner, David Hall, has tried cases for a local speedboat touring company involving leg amputation and spinal cord paralysis. Most recently, one of our partners closed out 2007 by participating in the successful defense of a major U.S. automaker in a product liability and consumer fraud case with an eight figure demand.
Outside of the litigation arena, we regularly advise our clients on product liability issues as varied as risk management and loss prevention, state and federal regulations, electronic data management and electronic discovery protocols, quality assurance and product design and safety.
