Biography: Aviation

Thomas J Whalen is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott LLC. Mr Whalen's practice has involved corporate and regulatory advice to foreign airlines operating to the United States; international commercial arbitration; advice on the documentation for the sale, financing and leasing of aircraft and aircraft engines; corporate and general litigation, including the defence of airlines in aircraft accident cases and the defence of foreign governments under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; advice on airline accident investigations and family assistance; and trade advice on the effect of US economic sanctions on the sale and lease of aircraft and aircraft engines and on issues involving US export control laws and regulations.

Mr Whalen has had extensive litigation experience at both the trial and appellate levels. He successfully argued the case of Helicopteros Nacionales de Colombia SA (Helicol) v Hall, 466 US 408 (1984) before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Helicol case is the landmark precedent on the issue of the jurisdiction of US courts over claims that arise outside of the United States.

Mr Whalen was lead counsel in a contribution and indemnity action against the United States before the US Supreme Court in Stencil Aero Engineering Corp v United States, 431 US 666 (1977). He was also lead counsel in several precedent-setting decisions before United States Courts of Appeal: Jifry v Federal Aviation Administration, 370 F3d 1174 (DC Circuit 2004); Lunsford v United States, 570 F2d 221 (8th Circuit 1977); Laker Airways Ltd v SABENA Belgium World Airlines, 731 F2d 909 (DC Circuit 1984); and South African Airways v Dole, 817 F2d 118 (DC Circuit 1987).

Mr Whalen recently presented oral argument in November 2011 before the United States Supreme Court in the deportation/immigration case captioned Kawashima v Holder.

Mr Whalen was appointed by the US Department of State as part of a committee to draft an international convention on the recognition and enforcement of security interests in mobile equipment, including aircraft and engines. He served on the drafting committee from 1992 to 1998. This convention has come into force as the Cape Town Convention.

Mr Whalen has spoken at professional meetings on various aviation legal subjects, and has published numerous articles on such subjects as the arbitration of international cargo claims, the regulatory obligations of foreign air carriers operating to the United States, the Montreal Convention, the US economic sanctions and the family assistance requirements of airlines in the event of an accident.

He also prepared and authored a compact disc training programme called 'Your Airline's Response to Tragedy' to help airlines to respond effectively to a major aircraft accident in the United States.

Mr Whalen is a frequent lecturer on aviation law issues at McGill University Air and Space Law Institute and other law schools. He served in the US Army for three years as an officer including one year as US Army Customs Officer at the commercial port of Saigon, Vietnam.

Mr Whalen is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (JD in 1963) and was law secretary to the Honorable Gerald McLaughlin of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1963-1964). He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. He resides with his family in Washington, DC.