International law firm, Hill Dickinson has began expanding its private aviation division in order to supplement and strengthen its well-established superyacht offering, with the two becoming increasingly complementary services. The most recent expansion of the aviation division is the appointment of Jonathan Russell as senior associate at Hill Dickinson.

“Hill Dickinson has had a good reputation in the superyacht industry for a number of years,” comments Russell. “The clients that we are acting on behalf of, be it from a financier or owner perspective, invariably have a jet and a helicopter as well as a yacht.”

Russell, who is soon to be on the aviation panel at The Superyacht Owner’s Summit 2016, believes that the two often interconnected yachting and aviation disciplines complement each other as a business proposition.

Jonathan Russell

“My appointment is a means of connecting the two disciplines. I have joined the yacht team rather than the aviation team, which is in the city, to bring the two together”, continues Russell. “With this joined up approach we are able to be more streamlined in our thinking and approach to clients. If we set up yacht structures according to certain parameters we would also look at the aircraft element in the same vein.”

The concept of lifecycle management is rife in the superyacht industry at the moment; the majority of shipyards see the benefit of being involved at every stage of a yacht’s life; conception, build, survey, refit and resale. And the management of other assets is no different. There are benefits to be reaped by both the contracted firm and the owner, in terms of efficiency, trust, relationship strength and expectation, but couched in terms of asset use, personal requirements, tax considerations and so on.

“I know from personal experience that where we have represented an owner on the yacht side, it has been very beneficial to do the same work on the aviation side,” Russell says. “We want our current and future clients to know that we are excited about the possibilities of our improved offering and that we are bringing together the best combined knowledge from both sides of the industry.”

To find out more about aviation law and private jet management, join us from 4-6 May for The Superyacht Owner’s Summit 2016, a cutting-edge series of talks on luxury asset acquisition, focusing on the three themes of air, land and sea, as part of ‘Prestige London’ and ‘The London Yacht, Jet and Prestige Car Show’. To register click here.

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