Biography: Aviation

Nimish Vakil is a partner in the firm of Tyabji Dayabhai, one of Mumbai's oldest law firms.

After qualifying as a solicitor in Mumbai in 1991 and in London in 1992, he has been actively associated with aircraft transactions such as lease, sale-leaseback and purchases. He has represented various banks including Export Development Canada, Investec Bank, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, BNP Paribas, Standard Bank of South Africa, HSH Nordbank, Bank of Nova Scotia, Barclays, DVB, KfW, ANZ, Natwest, Standard Chartered Bank, ING, and Sanwa. Aircraft leasing companies he has represented include GECAS, CIT, Pegasus, AWAS, MCAP, MUL, Aer Cap BV, BOC Aviation, Intrepid, Avequis, Tombo Aviation Inc, Osprey Aircraft Leasing Limited, Yamasa Full Moon Leasing Company, AVIC International Leasing Company, Alafco Leasing Company, Guggenheim Aviation Partners LLC, and BJets. Representation of aircraft manufacturers include ATR and Hawker Beechcraft; and he has represented airlines such as Korean Air, Castle Air, Taj Air Ltd and Oman Air in concluding deals with various Indian airlines such as Air India, Jet Airways, Jet Lite, Deccan, Spice Jet, Indigo, Kingfisher and other non-scheduled and private operators.

Nimish Vakil has been a speaker at various conferences since 1995, including the International Airfinance Legal Conference in Washington, DC, USA; the Euromoney India Airfinance Conference and the Everest South Asia Aviation Finance Conference which were both held in New Delhi, India.

As well as advising on various structures, regulatory and legal issues in aircraft transactions he has also been successful in helping lessors to repossess their aircraft, he has acted for Ansett Aviation (now AWAS) and Raytheon (now Hawker Beechcraft), and also represented AWAS in court proceedings to seek orders for restoration of aircraft leased to Kingfisher to airworthy conditions.