About

Fintan Jackson, senior legal counsel Standard Chartered Aviation Finance (SCAF), is a highly experienced in-house counsel in the aviation finance industry. He highlights that when he joined SCAF, ‘not only did I move in-house but I also moved into a brand-new field (aviation finance) in which I had no experience. It was an extremely challenging and enjoyable transition with a steep learning curve. It challenged me to move out of my comfort zone and develop a whole new way of thinking and looking at legal challenges’. Recently, Jackson has orchestrated the implementation of new precedent operating lease and lease management documentation to ensure that the business is in line with current market practice; reviewed the current sanctions provisions for the aviation business; revised the current process and procedures around deal execution; put in place better cost controls and procedures for agreeing and keeping track of legal fees; and developed modern working practices including improved digitisation of documentation storage. Jackson identifies that, ‘the idea behind all this work was to challenge people to think about the current working practices and to promote innovation within the legal department and the overall business. One of the major highlights of working for SCAF is that we are part of a bank with a large global footprint, not only do we enter into the usual leasing transactions that all aircraft lessors enter into, but we also provide a variety of debt products to our aviation clients which distinguishes us from most other lessors in the market and the legal team works on these deals’. Jackson works on many contentious matters such as airline defaults and repossessions the group encounters providing him exposure to a wide variety of products and has significantly widened his skillset and breadth of experience. The business has recently established a New York office and has moved into the US market. Jackson was involved in one of its first sale and lease back transactions for multiple aircraft with a US major airline, which was a new departure for SCAF. He also closed a number of portfolio sales with multiple aircraft with different lessees and in one case closed the sale of 11 aircraft in the space of a week and completed the sale and leaseback transaction with a major European low-cost carrier which closed within a week of executing the letter of intent. On his move to the in-house market, Jackson highlights that, ‘for me, the great thing about being an in-house counsel is that you get to see a deal from cradle to grave rather than the snapshots of certain transactions which you get as an external counsel. This new perspective has taught that there is always a need to strike a balance between the commercial objectives of the business and the legal risks involved in any deal’.