Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) is delighted to announce that it has been shortlisted for the Innovative Lawyers in Restructuring Award at the Financial Times’ Innovative Lawyers Europe 2024 awards in recognition of the Global Aviation Resource Index (“GARI”). GARI is a highly regarded online interactive legal analytics tool that allows users to compare data and scores for aviation restructuring procedures, aircraft repossession rights and aircraft deregistration rights in 100+ jurisdictions.
Initially launched in October 2021, GARI originated as a comparative index of over 55 restructuring procedures in 30 key aviation jurisdictions as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic which saw airlines across the globe entering into insolvency and restructuring procedures. Following the success of the original inception – which was recognised as a ‘Standout” for the Digital Legal Services award at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe 2022 awards – it was relaunched at the start of the year, more than tripling the number of jurisdictions covered and including repossession and deregistration data and scores for each of these jurisdictions.
GARI’s data can be easily compared at an initial high-level view and further broken down for deeper analysis, making it invaluable resource for numerous aviation sector participants, including financiers, lessors and airlines. GARI users can easily compare procedures across multiple jurisdictions to assist with the planning of new aircraft finance and leasing transactions, auditing jurisdictional risk, dealing with specific fact patterns for aircraft disputes and repossessions, and analysing actual or potential restructuring procedures worldwide.
The FT Innovative Lawyers Europe are a celebration of the best in innovation from law firms and in-house legal teams across Europe, highlighting innovation in areas including sustainability, diversity and digital transformation.
Global Aviation Sector Co-Head Jim Bell commented: “I am delighted that we have been shortlisted for the Innovative Lawyers in Restructuring award in recognition of GARI. As a freely available, innovative online resource, it is unlike anything that has been created before and will play a vital role in assessing jurisdictional risk to accommodate any given fact pattern in a fully customisable manner”.
London Aviation Partner and GARI editor Dominic Pearson added: “GARI’s success is testament to the innovation, commitment and strategic thinking of the WFW team that worked on enhancing the original incarnation as well as the contributing law firms globally that dedicated their time and efforts to provide us with the invaluable data from their individual jurisdictions”.
The FT Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards will take place on 12 September 2024 at the Natural History Museum in London.
