Nathan Leavitt
Partner
Overview
Nathan Leavitt is a financial services attorney in Holland & Knight's San Francisco office and a member of the firm's Aviation Team and Aircraft Finance Team. He represents world-leading aircraft operating lessors and financial institutions that support the commercial aircraft and airline industry.
Mr. Leavitt is a transaction attorney who advises clients on the purchase, sale, lease, novation, interchanges, secured and unsecured financing (including pre-delivery payment financing) and securitization of commercial and business aircraft, engines and parts. He focuses primarily on cross-border transactions, having guided his clients in deals with well more than 100 commercial airlines. He has a particular focus on transactions that involve airlines operating in Latin America.
In 2014, Mr. Leavitt undertook a nine-month secondment with the Latin America and Caribbean division of GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS).
Mr. Leavitt spent part of his career at Holland & Knight practicing from its New York and London offices.
Experience
- Lead counsel to seller in precedent-setting portfolio sale of A350-900, A320 and 737-800 aircraft utilizing Hong Kong leasing structures under Hong Kong's new tax concessions regime
- Represented an aircraft lessor in connection with the pre-delivery payment (PDP) financing for AeroMexico for five Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with a list price of more than $500 million
- Counseled a major aircraft lessor on a $500 million credit facility secured by a portfolio of aircraft on lease to seven different airlines
- Represented a publicly traded aircraft leasing company in connection with a $225 million credit facility borrowed by one of its joint ventures secured by seven aircraft on lease to airlines in Brazil, Malaysia and Germany
- Represented one of the world's largest aircraft lessors on the conditional sale of the beneficial interest in the owner trusts that own 10 Airbus A319 aircraft on lease to a major Latin American airline
- Represented an aircraft lessor on the sale of a portfolio of eight aircraft on lease to eight different airlines
- Advised an aircraft lessor on the acquisition, conversion and financing of a fleet of Boeing 737-400 cargo aircraft for its private equity fund
- Represented an aircraft lessor on the lease of three Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners to British Airways and the related secured term-loan financing
Credentials
- St. Mary's University School of Law, J.D., cum laude
- Whitworth College, B.A., Political Science
- California
- District of Columbia
- New York
- International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT)
- International Bar Association, Aviation Law Committee
- American Bar Association, Aviation Finance Subcommittee
- Phi Delta Phi, Tarlton Inn, Magister
- The Bar Association of San Francisco
- Guide to the World’s Leading Aviation Lawyers, Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides, 2015, 2017-2019
- The Legal 500 USA, Aviation and Air Travel: Finance, 2018, 2019
- Overall Deal of the Year, Airfinance Journal China, 2018
- Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Transportation: Aviation: Finance, 2015, 2016
- Rising Star, Legal Media Group's Expert Guides, 2016
- Aviation ABS Deal of the Year, Global Transport Finance, 2015
- Debt Deal of the Year, Airline Economics, 2015
- North American Deal of the Year, Airfinance Journal, 2015
- Rising Star, Airfinance Journal, 2014
- St. Mary's Law Journal, Associate Editor
- St. Mary's Law Journal, Staff Writer
- Angel Award Recipient for Pro Bono service, California Lawyer Magazine, 2008
Publications
Speaking Engagements
News
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