Biography: Aviation

Counsel in the Calgary office of Davis LLP, Robert Donald is a member of the firm's aviation, litigation and dispute resolution and transportation groups. In advising clients, Mr Donald draws upon his expertise in the areas of international aviation, national and international commercial transactions, litigation and competition law.

Mr Donald is the former general counsel of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and spent 10 years with the association's legal department in Geneva and Montreal. As chief legal officer of the association, he was responsible for the legal affairs of the corporation and its subsidiaries, in over 80 countries. Mr Donald acted as legal advisor to the Aviation Conferences and was the secretary of the IATA legal committee. He led numerous industry task forces including those which developed the legal framework to implement "E ticketing" as well as the task force responsible for ensuring IATA resolutions and recommended practices reflected changes to EU competition laws.

Mr Donald was a delegate to the ICAO Diplomatic Conference, which adopted the Montreal Convention of 1999, as well as the legal committee meetings which preceded it, was IATA's chief delegate at the ICAO legal committee meetings on modernisation of the Rome convention and was appointed by ICAO to the experts study group. He was also a delegate to the panel of legal and technical experts on GNSS (Global Navigation and Satellite Systems) and to ICAO/UNIDROIT meetings on the Cape Town convention. He has recently been elected to chair of the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) legal committee. Prior to joining the IATA, he had been a partner at a Montreal law firm for 10 years.