Amanda Applegate to Speak on Consequences of Avantair Bankruptcy at February NBAA Conference

Amanda Applegate, Senior Transactional Attorney for the Aerlex Law Group, will be speaking at the Business Aircraft Finance, Registration & Legal Conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida, on February 5-7, 2014.

Ms. Applegate will participate in a panel entitled “So You Want to Be a Fractional Share Owner – But What Happens if the Program Shuts Down?” with attorney Joel Shapiro of Blank Rome, LLP, Jeff Agur of The VanAllen Group and Ellyn Slow of Ellyn Slow Consulting, LLC. The panel will be discussing the many issues that have arisen in the aftermath of the Avantair bankruptcy. Attorney Eileen Gleimer of Crowell & Moring LLP will moderate the panel. The discussion of Avantair’s demise is expected to be one of the highlights of the conference.

Ms. Applegate has been extremely involved in the Avantair bankruptcy proceedings ever since the company was forced into an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy by creditors in July 2013 and has considerable insight into the far-reaching repercussions and critical challenges associated with the failure of a fractional ownership company. Among other issues, the panel will examine the implications of Avantair’s bankruptcy on owners’ interests and the effect of Avantair’s shutdown on the overall fractional market. Panelists will also discuss additional steps fractional owners can take to protect their interests.

“Since the inception of the first fractional ownership program, industry experts have wondered what would happen if a fractional provider ceased operations,” said Ms. Applegate, who served as deputy general counsel for 12 years for the NetJets fractional program before joining Aerlex in 2011. “We are now living through the first such instance and the myriad of legal issues which have arisen is more than I – or anyone else – could have imagined.”

The Florida conference is organized by the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and will draw an audience of professionals involved in buying, selling, financing and registering aircraft. Aviation industry leaders will present a variety of educational and interactive sessions on topics such as lease and loan documentation, non-citizen trusts, current developments in finance, and aircraft transaction structures. To learn more about the NBAA conference and to complete registration, please click here. To contact Amanda Applegate, please email her at aapplegate@aerlex.com or call at 877-237-5398.