Bird & Bird bags Bae in-houser for aviation drive

Bird & Bird has scooped the group legal director of Bae Systems’ finance & treasury team to lead and build its international aviation & aerospace team.

Paul Briggs will manage the firm’s international aviation and aerospace sector group together with Brussels-based partner Catherine Erkelens.

“We don’t want to compete with Clifford Chance, Denton Wilde Sapte or Linklaters on big, complicated financing projects. The real aim is aviation commercial business, issues such as the buying and selling of aircraft, leasing, insuring, registration, regulatory and competition issues,” said Briggs.

The firm has aviation lawyers in Belgium, France, Germany and Hong Kong. Briggs has been given a brief to bring these practices together and add a UK group.

Briggs has worked in the aviation sector since 1987 and at Bae Systems and its predecessor British Aerospace since 1995, where he was the legal head of the group aircraft leasing / financing business.

During this time Briggs helped set up Oasis Leasing in Abu Dhabi and led the Airbus asset management legal team in Toulouse.