TRANSACTIONAL ASSOCIATE ATTORNEY - Airports Practice Area

Kaplan Kirsch LLP•Orlando, FL

5d•$172,000 - $190,000•Hybrid

About The Position

We are seeking highly motivated, creative, and collaborative attorneys to join our Airport Practice. This role is for a lawyer who enjoys sophisticated deal work and wants to apply transactional skills across a broad range of projects involving airports, real estate development, construction, public finance, public procurement, and project delivery. The ideal candidate brings strong commercial instincts, excellent judgment, and a desire to take ownership of complex matters. The work is sophisticated, varied, collaborative, and rarely routine. This mid-level associate would be placed in our Airports Practice Area and based in Denver or Orlando. While it’s preferable that the candidate already have real-world airport law experience, we are seeking an attorney who enjoys working across disciplines, digging into unfamiliar regulatory and business frameworks, and helping clients solve practical problems on projects that have lasting impacts on communities and the built environment. For lawyers seeking a dynamic legal practice with real-world significance, airport law offers a rare opportunity to work on matters that shape how people and goods move, how regions grow, and how communities stay connected. Airports are essential public assets, and the legal work surrounding them affects millions of travelers, businesses, and communities every day. Operating outside the “Big Law” model, our collegial and collaborative firm gives associates the opportunity to take on meaningful responsibility early, build strong client relationships, and grow professionally through work that is both challenging and impactful. We are a fast-growing national specialized law firm devoted exclusively to helping clients solve problems involving the nation’s most complex and high-profile projects in airports, real estate, land use, infrastructure, project financing, rail, transit, renewable energy, environmental, conservation, and tribal law. While the Firm is loosely organized into primary practices areas, we pride ourselves on complex, collaborative work that engages us beyond the boundaries of traditional legal disciplines, and associates will regularly work with colleagues across all our practice areas. Founded in 2003 to provide an alternative to the “business of law as usual,” we are proud to be recognized both for the quality of our work and for the opportunities we provide associates to learn, develop meaningful expertise, and build long-term careers. Our associates receive substantial responsibility, direct client contact, and a clear path toward partnership.

Requirements

Approximately 3 to 5 years of transactional legal experience; candidates with more extensive experience are also encouraged to apply.
Exceptional drafting, negotiation, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Intellectual curiosity, sound judgment, and a demonstrated interest in learning how public sector, commercial, and infrastructure issues intersect in complex client matters.
Ability to adapt quickly in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment to successfully multi-task and manage deadlines and proactively address client matters.
Ability to think through complex legal and business issues and work collaboratively to advise our clients on creative means of achieving their objectives.
High comfort level in working both independently and in a team environment.
Action-oriented, immediately responsible for and responsive to your client, delegating intelligently, and seeking opportunities for personal improvement.
Achieved a law degree from an accredited law school and be admitted to practice in a U.S. jurisdiction (CO, NY, FL, or CA, preferred).

Nice To Haves

Experience with complex commercial or real estate transactions involving multiple stakeholders and regulatory frameworks.
Experience with the federal regulatory framework in which airports operate, or with other transportation regulations and/or federal transportation agencies (e.g., U.S. DOT, FAA, FRA, FTA, FHWA, STB and Build America Bureau).
Experience with airport operations, airport law, and/or other aspects of aviation, transportation, procurement, or project finance.
Demonstrated interest (professional or personal) in public infrastructure, aviation, transportation, public policy, and/or related matters.
Experience drafting or working with construction contracting and project delivery methods, including design-build and progressive design-build.
An entrepreneurial mindset with a collegial, team-focused approach to legal practice.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and attentively listen, actively engage, and effectively communicate complex matters.
Excited by the prospect of a highly creative practice of law, where developing solutions to client matters is difficult, nuanced, and rarely routine.

Responsibilities

Serve as a key member of our nationwide airports practice, while also collaborating and supporting our attorneys across the firm's real estate, environmental, rail/transit, project finance, and construction practices.
Draft, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of agreements, including development agreements, acquisition and disposition documents, easements, leases, construction and procurement contracts, design-build agreements, and related project documentation.
Work directly with clients and partners on navigating complex federal regulatory and funding schemes in connection with airport operations, airport development, airport finance, construction, procurement, and environmental matters, ranging from the largest airports in the world to small general aviation facilities.
Advise public and private clients regarding project development, infrastructure delivery, real estate transactions, funding structures, procurement strategies, and construction matters.
Gain exposure to clients, colleagues, and industry leaders through periodic travel for client meetings, site visits, negotiations, and industry conferences.