Duane Morris LLP - Timothy J. Norris, Partner

Timothy J. Norris

Timothy J. Norris
Partner
Duane Morris LLP
200 South Biscayne Boulevard, Suite 3400
Miami, FL 33131-2318
USA
Phone: +1 305 960 2241
Fax: +1 305 397 1890
Email: TJNorris@duanemorris.com

Timothy J. Norris concentrates his practice in the area of general commercial law, focusing on contracts and controversies under the Leases and Secured Transaction Articles of the Uniform Commercial Code as well as bankruptcy and creditors' rights issues. He also handles debt restructuring.

Mr. Norris has extensive experience in the leasing, financing and sales of transport-category aircraft and aircraft engines. Additionally, he has represented lessors and lenders with the restructuring of transactions with financially-troubled operators and with the recovery of aircraft from failing or bankrupt air carriers (including the foreclosure of security interests in U.S. and non-U.S. registered aircraft) and the treatment of financed or leased aircraft in bankruptcy proceedings.

While Mr. Norris is based in the United States, the majority of his aircraft practice has been outside the United States, involving some thirty countries around the world:

The Americas: Canada, U.S., Mexico, Bermuda, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil

Europe: Iceland, Ireland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan

Middle East and Asia: Sharjah-United Arab Emirates, India, Hong Kong

Africa: Gabon, Senegal, Morocco, Djibouti

The airlines with which Mr. Norris has dealt have included major U.S. carriers (such as America West Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Delta Airlines) and major foreign air carriers (such as Air Canada, Alitalia, Avianca and Russia's S7 as well as TAM and GOL in Brazil) as well as small government and privately-owned airlines. In some instances, aircraft are registered in one jurisdiction (such as Bermuda, France or Ireland) while operated by an airline with an air operator's certificate from another country (which often can require complicated head lease structuring of the transaction to address regulatory and tax issues of the various applicable jurisdictions).

In each instance, knowledge of local law was necessary in order to complete the transaction with the interests of the financing party appropriately protected and in compliance with any restrictions or requirements of local law with respect to the aircraft's registration or operation. While a number of the affected jurisdictions have now ratified the Cape Town Convention, many have not and some that have ratified the treaty have opted out of the application of the treaty's optional, more creditor-friendly provisions, all of which necessarily are addressed in the transaction documentation.

In many transactions, the subject aircraft were being delivered new by the aircraft manufacturer to a leasing company, and in order to facilitate those deliveries and the assignments of manufacturer warranties and product support to the aircraft operator, familiarity with the Airbus and Boeing forms of aircraft purchase agreements with respect to the airframe and the forms of engine purchase agreements (with such engine manufacturers as CFM International, IAE International Aero Engines and Pratt & Whitney) with respect to the engines was required.

Another significant part of Mr. Norris' practice involves the leasing and financing of various other types of equipment. He has represented the lessor/financer in the lease financing of photovoltaic solar electrical generation systems for installation on business premises, which typically involve the financer taking a security interest in the solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) issued as a result of the solar generation of electrical power. In addition to the financing of owner-operated systems, Mr. Norris has been involved with the financing of third-party operated systems installed on business premises under power purchase agreements between the owner of the business and a third-party which acquires, installs, and maintains the system, with the financer leasing or otherwise financing the solar system and receiving a security interest in the SRECs and a collateral assignment of the power purchase agreement.

Mr. Norris' involvement in restructurings has been varied, involving different industries with their unique problems and circumstances. For example, he was involved in the $1.2 billion debt restructuring of the internationally held debt of the once-largest privately owned Mexican steel producer. He represented two financial institutions in one of the first cases at the appeals court level addressing the rights of parties to reverse repurchase agreements involving government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities. He also represented a large Manhattan bank in the bankruptcy court approval of a $70 million creditor's reorganization plan involving the transfer of Federal Communications Commission licenses only six months after the case was filed. Mr. Norris has had substantial involvement in the bankruptcy cases of Airlift International, Inc., Arrow Air, Inc., Belize Airways Ltd., Braniff, Inc., Cenvill Development Corp., Continental Air Lines, Inc., Days Inns of America, Inc., Eastern Air Lines, Inc., Lykes Bros. Steamship Co., Burton L. Reynolds and SeaEscape Cruises, Ltd. and represented aircraft and engine lessors in the chapter 11 proceedings of Aerovías Nacionales de Colombia S.A. Avianca and Flyi (Independence Air). He is currently defending actions to avoid alleged preferential transfers in the TOUSA chapter 11 case.

In bankruptcy court, Mr. Norris has represented equipment lessors, secured and unsecured creditors, creditors' committees, indenture trustees, purchasers of assets and businesses, and debtors, and has also defended actions to avoid prepetition transfers.

A number of Mr. Norris' cases have resulted in published opinions, including several at the court of appeals. La Esquina Presidencial, Inc. v. Ocean Bank of Miami, 623 So.2d 520 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1993), rev. dismissed, 632 So.2d 1027 (Fla. 1994), is a decision applying the strict compliance principle to a standby letter of credit with an ever-green clause. In re F.W.D.C., Inc., 158 B.R. 523 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 1993), is one of the very few cases decided under the Bankruptcy Code which concludes that decisions on the extent of the allowability of claims against multiple obligors decided under the Bankruptcy Act have continued viability. Furlong v. Havee (In re Furlong), 885 F.2d 815 (11th Cir. 1989), stands for the proposition that the court of appeals has supervisory power over the conduct of lower federal courts and can exercise that power, in order to effectuate justice, to vacate orders otherwise properly entered. GATX Leasing Corp. v. Airlift International, Inc. (In re Airlift International, Inc.), 761 F.2d 1503 (11th Cir. 1985), and Seidle v. GATX Leasing Corp., 778 F.2d 659 (11th Cir. 1985), are seminal decisions in the courts of appeals on the meaning of, and rights of protected parties under, Section 1110 of the Bankruptcy Code. Plano Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Irving Trust Co. (In re Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp.), 695 F.2d 506 (11th Cir. 1983), and Westchester County Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp. (In re Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp.), 648 F.2d 321 (5th Cir. 1981), were among the first at the court of appeals level addressing the rights of parties to reverse repurchase agreements and the dealer's clearing house. First State Bank of Miami v. Gotham Provision Co. (In re Gotham Provision Co.), 669 F.2d 1000 (5th Cir. 1982), was a case of first impression at the court of appeals level on the rights of cattle producers under the trust created by the Packers & Stockyards Act; the court adopted many of the theories advanced by the cattle producers, which then led to the adoption of the trust provisions of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

Mr. Norris is admitted to practice in Florida and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Mr. Norris is a 1975 cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School and a magna cum laude graduate of the Athenaeum of Ohio. He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America - Bankruptcy Law each year since 1991.

Areas of Practice

Commercial Law
- Aircraft Leasing and Financing
- Equipment Leasing
Bankruptcy Law
Creditors' Rights

Representative Matters

La Esquina Presidencial, Inc. v. Ocean Bank of Miami, 623 So.2d 520 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1993), rev. dismissed, 632 So.2d 1027 (Fla. 1994), is a decision applying the strict compliance principle to a standby letter of credit with an ever-green clause
In re F.W.D.C., Inc., 158 B.R. 523 (Bankr. S.D. Fla. 1993), is one of the very few cases decided under the Bankruptcy Code which concludes that decisions on the extent of the allowability of claims against multiple obligors decided under the Bankruptcy Act have continued viability
Furlong v. Havee (In re Furlong), 885 F.2d 815 (11th Cir. 1989), stands for the proposition that the court of appeals has supervisory power over the conduct of lower federal courts and can exercise that power, in order to effectuate justice, to vacate orders otherwise properly entered
GATX Leasing Corp. v. Airlift International, Inc. (In re Airlift International, Inc.), 761 F.2d 1503 (11th Cir. 1985), and Seidle v. GATX Leasing Corp., 778 F.2d 659 (11th Cir. 1985), are seminal decisions in the courts of appeals on the meaning of, and rights of protected parties under, Section 1110 of the Bankruptcy Code
Plano Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Irving Trust Co. (In re Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp.), 695 F.2d 506 (11th Cir. 1983), and Westchester County Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp. (In re Legel Braswell Government Securities Corp.), 648 F.2d 321 (5th Cir. 1981) - These two decisions were among the first at the court of appeals level addressing the rights of parties to reverse repurchase agreements and the dealer's clearing house
First State Bank of Miami v. Gotham Provision Co. (In re Gotham Provision Co.), 669 F.2d 1000 (5th Cir. 1982) - This was a case of first impression at the court of appeals level on the rights of cattle producers under the trust created by the Packers & Stockyards Act; the court adopted many of the theories advanced by the cattle producers, which then led to the adoption of the trust provisions of the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act

Professional Activities

The Florida Bar
American Bankruptcy Institute

Admissions

Florida
Supreme Court of the United States
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida

Education

Harvard Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1975

Experience

Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2003-present
Buchanan Ingersoll P.C., Miami, Florida
- Shareholder, 1999-2003
Thomson, Muraro, Razook & Hart, P.A., Miami, Florida
- Partner, 1995-1999
Weil, Gotshal & Manges, Miami, Florida
- Partner, 1986-1990
Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody & Cole, Miami, Florida
- Partner, 1980-1986; 1990-1995
- Associate, 1975-1979

Honors and Awards

Named in the South Florida Legal Guide Top Rated Lawyers, 2012
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America - Bankruptcy Law, 1987-2012
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell

AV® Preeminent™ and BV® Distinguished™ are certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies.