Job Description

We’re looking for highly motivated, creative, and collaborative attorneys to join our Airport Practice. This role is for a lawyer who enjoys sophisticated deal work and wants to apply transactional skills across a broad range of projects involving airports, real estate development, construction, public finance, public procurement, and project delivery. The ideal candidate brings strong commercial instincts, excellent judgment, and a desire to take ownership of complex matters. The work is sophisticated, varied, collaborative, and rarely routine.

This mid-level associate would be placed in our Airports Practice Area and based in Denver or Orlando. While it’s preferable that the candidate already have real-world airport law experience, we are seeking an attorney who enjoys working across disciplines, digging into unfamiliar regulatory and business frameworks, and helping clients solve practical problems on projects that have lasting impacts on communities and the built environment. For lawyers seeking a dynamic legal practice with real-world significance, airport law offers a rare opportunity to work on matters that shape how people and goods move, how regions grow, and how communities stay connected. Just as important, it is deeply meaningful: airports are essential public assets, and the legal work surrounding them affects millions of travelers, businesses, and communities every day.

Why consider us?

Operating outside the “Big Law” model, our collegial and collaborative firm gives associates the opportunity to take on meaningful responsibility early, build strong client relationships, and grow professionally through work that is both challenging and impactful.

We are a fast-growing national specialized law firm devoted exclusively to helping clients solve problems involving the nation’s most complex and high-profile projects in airports, real estate, land use, infrastructure, project financing, rail, transit, renewable energy, environmental, conservation, and tribal law. While the Firm is loosely organized into primary practices areas, we pride ourselves on complex, collaborative work that engages us beyond the boundaries of traditional legal disciplines, and associates will regularly work with colleagues across all our practice areas.

Founded in 2003 to provide an alternative to the “business of law as usual,” we are proud to be recognized both for the quality of our work and for the opportunities we provide associates to learn, develop meaningful expertise, and build long-term careers. Our associates receive substantial responsibility, direct client contact, and a clear path toward partnership.

In this role, you will:

• Serve as a key member of our nationwide airports practice, while also collaborating and supporting our attorneys across the firm's real estate, environmental, rail/transit, project finance, and construction practices.
• Draft, review, negotiate, and manage a broad range of agreements, including development agreements, acquisition and disposition documents, easements, leases, construction and procurement contracts, design-build agreements, and related project documentation.
• Work directly with clients and partners on navigating complex federal regulatory and funding schemes in connection with airport operations, airport development, airport finance, construction, procurement, and environmental matters, ranging from the largest airports in the world to small general aviation facilities.
• Advise public and private clients regarding project development, infrastructure delivery, real estate transactions, funding structures, procurement strategies, and construction matters.
• Gain exposure to clients, colleagues, and industry leaders through periodic travel for client meetings, site visits, negotiations, and industry conferences.

Requirements

You will excel in this role by:

• Having approximately 3 to 5 years of transactional legal experience; candidates with more extensive experience are also encouraged to apply.
• Demonstrating exceptional drafting, negotiation, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Showing intellectual curiosity, sound judgment, and a demonstrated interest in learning how public sector, commercial, and infrastructure issues intersect in complex client matters.
• Adapting quickly in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment to successfully multi-task and manage deadlines and proactively address client matters.
• Demonstrating an ability to think through complex legal and business issues and work collaboratively to advise our clients on creative means of achieving their objectives.
• Having a high comfort level in working both independently and in a team environment.
• Taking initiative by being action-oriented, immediately responsible for and responsive to your client, delegating intelligently, and seeking opportunities for personal improvement.

You will stand out from other candidates if you have one or more of the following:

• Have experience with complex commercial or real estate transactions involving multiple stakeholders and regulatory frameworks.
• Have experience with the federal regulatory framework in which airports operate, or with other transportation regulations and/or federal transportation agencies (e.g., U.S. DOT, FAA, FRA, FTA, FHWA, STB and Build America Bureau).
• Have experience with airport operations, airport law, and/or other aspects of aviation, transportation, procurement, or project finance.
• Have a demonstrated interest (professional or personal) in public infrastructure, aviation, transportation, public policy, and/or related matters.
• Have experience drafting or working with construction contracting and project delivery methods, including design-build and progressive design-build.
• Have an entrepreneurial mindset with a collegial, team-focused approach to legal practice.
• Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills and attentively listen, actively engage, and effectively communicate complex matters.
• Are excited by the prospect of a highly creative practice of law, where developing solutions to client matters is difficult, nuanced, and rarely routine.

All candidates must have achieved a law degree from an accredited law school and be admitted to practice in a U.S. jurisdiction (CO, NY, FL, or CA, preferred).

Position details: This is a full-time position to be located in Denver, CO or Orlando, FL. We have an annual expectation of 1,600 billable hours for our associates, and we have incorporated our values into this target by including an unlimited amount of approved pro bono hours when meeting this target. This position requires periodic travel for client meetings, industry conferences, and opportunities to visit with colleagues in other Firm offices. The salary range is $172,000 - $190,000 commensurate with experience. We offer medical, dental, vision, HSA, FSA, STD, LTD, group term life insurance, 401(k), flexible PTO, and parental leave. The Firm will also cover some public transportation costs. We are currently working in a hybrid environment, which may allow for remote work as business needs allow.

The Firm is actively committed to fostering the principles of diversity, inclusion, and equal employment opportunity. We do not discriminate against applicants or employees on the basis of age, race, color, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity, disability, marital status, military status, or any other status protected by federal, state, or local law.

If you need reasonable accommodation at any point in the application process, please do not hesitate to reach out by emailing HR@kaplankirsch.com