About us

Nurenberg Paris Aviation Lawyers

Since 1928, Nurenberg, Paris, Heller & McCarthy has handled complex and catastrophic cases involving airplanes, trains, tractor-trailer trucks, buses, and motor vehicles of all types. While we always have represented local aviation cases, we developed a national focus more than 20 years ago. This national practice not only allows us to make a difference in the lives of accident victims and family members, but also to influence aviation law and improve safety.

Throughout our long history, we also have built a vast national network of experts from many fields of specialties as well as respected attorneys who assist us with local cases. This network enables us to forge strong relationships with those who can help us investigate and handle large cases efficiently and in a timely manner. Our experience handling complex commercial and general aviation cases, several including complicated facts, has given our firm a national reputation we are proud of.

National Reach – Local Feel

In the aftermath of a crash, families are distraught and overwhelmed on several levels—tragedy and loss, news coverage and privacy invasion, probate and estate affairs, and more. Because of this, our practice is not built to maintain hundreds of aviation clients who just become another file number on our shelves. Our practice is built so we can have personal contact with our aviation clients on a regular basis through face-to-face meetings, e-mail and conference calls to keep them informed on the details and progress of the case.

This personal approach allows us to know our clients and their families well, often helping them with other matters related or unrelated to the crash. Understanding who our clients are and how important their loved ones were is integral to our representation.

Jamie R. Lebovitz is the head of our aviation department and dedicates 90 percent of his practice to aviation litigation. Three other partners with the firm, David Paris, Harlan Gordon, and Ellen McCarthy, also dedicate time and energy to aviation litigation. Kathleen St. John, partner and head of our appellate department, and Brenda Johnson are actively involved in motion, brief, and appellate work for the aviation department. Mr. Lebovitz also has a staff that includes a legal assistant, senior litigation paralegal, and in-house investigator who work closely with him on all his aviation cases.  Each member of his aviation staff have been with the firm more than 25 years, focusing their work on catastrophic injury cases.

A Difference that Matters

Nurenberg Paris has had the opportunity to effect real change in the aviation industry and improve safety for the flying public. We are dedicated to holding corporations, airlines, pilots, mechanics, and government agencies accountable for negligence. Most people, at some point in their lives, have had a reason to board a plane—it’s vitally important to keep the air traffic system in this country as safe as possible.

Landmark Case Decision

Nurenberg Paris represented 18 families who lost loved ones in the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash—comprising nearly a third of those on the plane. As an integral part of the plaintiff’s steering committee, which was a group of experienced aviation attorneys appointed by the federal judge overseeing the case, we helped to handle day-to-day responsibilities and worked closely with a multitude of experts and investigators to determine what actually happened before and during the crash sequence. Not only did we successfully investigate and conclude all these cases, but we also built lifelong friendships with many of the families who lost loved ones on this crash. Follow this link to read more about Alaska Airline Flight 261.

Litigation Results & Aviation Changes

Another Nurenberg Paris case resulted in governmental changes in the rule governing the movement of employees and personnel on areas near airplanes. The victim in this case was delivering checks to transport planes on a tarmac at night and inadvertently walked into a plane’s moving propeller. This was a complex case involving the victim’s employer, the operator of the aircraft, and the company in charge of ramp services at that airport.

Substantial evidence was developed by Jamie R. Lebovitz and Ellen McCarthy demonstrating that rotating propellers in certain conditions, especially at night, are invisible. In fact, there has been a long history of people on airport ramps having been in injured or killed in similar situations. Kathleen St. John, who is in charge of our appellate and briefing department, spent months developing legal motions submitted to the court and, ultimately, this case was settled just days before trial.

Air Evac Helicopter Safety

Litigation can and does make flying safer—we handled a case involving an Air Evac Helicopter that crashed while transporting a patient, who suffocated as a result. There were questions about the safety training and competency of the pilot as well as the risks involved in nighttime transport in helicopters unequipped with appropriate nighttime visual equipment. 

The medical helicopter industry has grown substantially in recent years and has been examined closely by the National Transportation Safety Board to institute stricter guidelines and oversight of this aviation industry. This case was one of the crashes examined by the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration in trying to prevent similar crashes from occurring.