Judy Nemsick is a Partner in the Litigation Practice Group of Holland & Knight's New York office. Her practice is focused primarily on complex litigation matters, with emphasis on air disaster litigation, class-action lawsuits, and privacy issues. She is part of the team representing Air France in multidistrict litigation arising out of the Flight 447 accident in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, and has represented air carriers in past litigation relating to the American Airlines Flight 587 accident near Belle Harbor, New York and the Swissair Flight 111 accident near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia.
She has significant experience representing U.S. and foreign air carriers in civil litigation, including claims involving wrongful death and personal injury, premises liability, passenger delay, cargo liability, and breach of contract. Ms. Nemsick's appellate experience includes successfully serving as co-lead counsel in El Al Israel Airlines, Ltd. v. Tseng, 525 U.S. 155 (1999), and in Privacy Rights Clearinghouse v. JetBlue Airways Corp., 2005 WL 3118798 (Cal. App. Nov. 22, 2005). She recently argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on preemption issues involving the Airline Deregulation Act.
Other notable experience includes:
- Securing forum non conveniens dismissal for foreign air carrier in litigation arising from an accident outside the United States
- Representing a board member of a foreign air carrier in litigation in New York and Florida arising from an overseas accident
- Securing denial of class certification of purported class for claims arising from delayed and cancelled flights caused by a cabin crew strike of a major commercial air carrier
- Coordinating response of a foreign commercial air carrier to a government investigation and subpoena
- Securing pre-answer dismissal of claims by disgruntled frequent flyer member (and purported class members) against a U.S. commercial air carrier for downgrading his status
- Representing commercial air carrier in passenger discrimination action
- Successfully representing foreign state in opposing order of attachment and preliminary injunction
Ms. Nemsick also counsels air carriers on a variety of commercial and civil matters, including contracts of carriage, charter contracts, ground-handling agreements, airline training materials, the Air Carrier Access Act, frequent flyer programs, and family assistance plans. She has written articles on various aviation-related topics, including federal preemption, choice of law, privacy rights, the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions, and forum non conveniens. She authored the chapter "Navigating Through the Chaos of a Choice of Law Analysis in Aviation Accident Litigation" for the ABA treatise Litigating the Aviation Case From Pre-Trial to Closing Argument (3d ed. 2008).
Ms. Nemsick currently serves as an editor of Holland & Knight's aviation newsletter Centerline, and is the Coordinator in New York for Holland & Knight's Women's Initiative. She also is a member of the International Aviation Women's Association (IAWA).