Biography: Aviation

Rodolfo A Gonzalez-Lebrero is the founder of the law firm Lebrero & Co, Abogados, and is now the senior partner of Lebrero Abogados SLRP. A former air pilot, Mr Gonzalez-Lebrero graduated as a lawyer (LLB) and as a Doctor of Laws (Phd Jur) both in Argentina and Spain, with extensive experience in the legal profession having practiced in Spain since 1986.

He has taught air and maritime law at the University of Buenos Aires School of Law, the San Salvador University School of Law in Buenos Aires, the Argentine Merchant Marine Academy, the Spanish Marine Institute in Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid.

Mr Gonzalez-Lebrero provides comprehensive and effective legal consultancy, as well as litigation services to aviation underwriters, airlines, aviation product manufacturers and other persons or entities involved in aviation activities both in Spain and abroad. He has significant expertise in handling aviation accident cases and claims, his main area of practice being aviation liability work.

He is a titular member of the Comité Maritime International; member of the Latin American Association of Air Law, Buenos Aires, Argentina; member of the Inter-American Committee of Legal Experts on Air and Space Law; member of the Spanish Air and Space Law Association; and a member of other similar organisations.

Mr Gonzalez-Lebrero is the author of several articles and books including The Legal Condition of Air Space (in Spanish); Handbook on Maritime Law (in Spanish); The EEC at the Time of the Liberalization of Air Transportation, (in Spanish); and Aviation Insurance (in Spanish).

He has been involved in many incidents including the controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) of BAE 146-100 near Melilla in 1998, the Bashkirian Airlines TU-154M mid-air collision with a DHL B757-200 in 2002, the accident near the Trabzon airport of a Yakolev-42 operated by the Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines, and the KLM B737-406 crash landing at the Barcelona airport in 2004, among others.