John F Pritchard is the practice group leader for the aircraft and transportation finance practice of Holland & Knight. With over 20 years' experience in aircraft, equipment and facility finance, Mr Pritchard is knowledgeable in all areas of asset-based financing and has concentrated on the representation of lessees, lessors, lenders, borrowers and government guarantors in domestic and cross-border leases, financings, securitisations, workouts and foreclosures of aircraft.

He is the chairman of the legal advisory panel to the Aviation Working Group with respect to the Cape Town Convention. He has served as chairman for the annual Euromoney Airfinance Legal Conference since 1986. He is a member of the American College of Finance Lawyers. Mr Pritchard was the chairman of the subcommittee on aircraft financing of the American Bar Association (ABA) from 1987 to 1994. He is on the advisory board of the Journal of Air Law and Commerce.

Mr Pritchard is the author of the US chapter in McBain and Hames, Aircraft Finance: Registration, Security and Enforcement, Longmans; the chapter "Aviation Workouts" in Rome, Business Workouts, Warren, Gorham & Lamont; the chapter "Aircraft Leasing" in Wong, Equipment Leasing, Matthew Bender; and the chapter on the US in McBain, Aircraft Liens and Detention Rights, Sweet & Maxwell.

Mr Pritchard graduated from Bowdoin College and earned his law degree at Columbia Law School. He was a visiting lawyer with Rodyk & Davidson in Singapore for eight months in 1979.

Holland & Knight's structured finance practice is internationally recognised in all areas of the transportation industry – aircraft, vessel, rail and other equipment. Its clients include leading names among airlines, corporate jet owners, lessors, lenders, investment banks, manufacturers and government guarantors. It handles domestic and cross-border acquisition, financing and leasing of these transportation assets.

Its experience is extensive, from operating leases and US tax-based leveraged leases to complex foreign and US double-dip tax lease structures and from traditional mortgage structures to US Ex-Im Bank aircraft financings. It has frequently represented creditors and lessors in workouts, bankruptcies and asset seizures.

Within the aviation industry, the firm has extensive experience in aircraft financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, aviation regulatory and commercial matters, and aviation accident litigation. It has worked on transactions involving nearly every US airline, as well as airlines and corporate jet operators in more than 50 foreign countries. In addition to Mr Pritchard, the group includes partners Richard Crowley, Robert Dillon, Nancy Hengen, Andrew Holmes, Ruth Lansner, George Mencio, William Piels, MJ Spelliscy, Audrey Sung, Jovi Tenev, and Thomas Zimmer.

Holland & Knight is a global law firm with more than 1,150 lawyers in 17 US offices. Other offices around the world are located in Mexico City, Tokyo and Beijing, with representative offices in Caracas, Helsinki and Tel Aviv.

Holland & Knight is one the largest law firms in the world, with US offices in New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and throughout Florida (including Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa) and international offices in Mexico City and Beijing, with representative offices in Caracas, Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv. The firm conducts a full-service business law practice, which including concentration in aviation law, including structured finance, securities, bankruptcy, tax, US regulatory, aircraft accident and insurance law.